Transcription
AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett. On the "News Hour" tonight: The killing of a U.S. citizen by an ICE agent prompts more protests and pressing questions about tactics and training.
DEQA ADAN, Minnesota Resident: We say to our kids, hey, if you see a kid being bullied, you stand up for them. You say something. Renee did that. She stood up.
AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump invites Colombia's leader to the White House, a turnaround from his earlier threats.
GEOFF BENNETT: And the Senate moves to restrict the president from taking further military action against Venezuela. We speak with lawmakers about the administration's shifting foreign policy.
(BREAK)
GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour." There were protests in Minnesota today over ICE and the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, on Wednesday, while, at the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance strongly defended ICE, saying the officer was defending himself and called Good's death a tragedy of her own making.
AMNA NAWAZ: Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, are hammering ICE and its aggressive presence in the community. State officials also said that federal investigators were effectively shutting them out of the shooting inquiry and blocking them from accessing evidence. Many in the community were reeling from the events of the past 48 hours. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story from Minneapolis.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: This morning, protesters clashed with federal agents in front of the Whipple Federal Building outside of Minneapolis, a city on edge after an ICE agent fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good yesterday. The shooting, caught on camera by bystanders, shows a chaotic scene on the residential street, ending with an agent firing three shots into Good's SUV.
WOMAN: No! No! Shame! Shame!
(GUNSHOTS)
WOMAN: Oh, my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God. What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?
J.D. VANCE, Vice President of the United States: This was an attack on law and order.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: At a press conference this afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance reiterated the administration's defense of the agent's actions.
J.D. VANCE: What I am certain of is that she violated the law. What I am certain of is that officer had every reason to think that he was under very serious threat for injury or in fact his life. What I am certain of is that she accelerated in a way where she ran into the guy. I don't know what was in her heart and what was in her head, but I know that she violated the law and I know that officer was acting in self-defense.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But state and local officials sharply disagree about what the video evidence shows. They say Good was trying to get away from ICE, not to run down the officer. Vance says, ultimately, the blame falls on what he calls the far left.
J.D. VANCE: I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making and a tragedy of the far left, who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe, against our law enforcement officers.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The officer, who local media identified as Jonathan Ross, is described as having 10 years of experience with the force and was involved in a separate incident in which he was dragged by a car and deployed a Taser, according to a criminal complaint from June of last year. Dieu Do is an activist with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.
DIEU DO, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee: To hear Kristi Noem and other federal leaders not show any empathy, but to start a smear campaign against Renee and Minnesotans, is abhorrent and disgusting.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: A vigil and a makeshift memorial grew Wednesday evening near the site of the shooting, honoring Good, whose family and friends describe her as a Christian who participated in mission trips, a poet who loved to sing, and a loving mother of three. At the memorial today, where protesters have put up makeshift barricades, Somali immigrant Deqa Adan came to pay her respects.
DEQA ADAN, Minnesota Resident: If you see a kid being bullied, you stand up for them. You say something. Renee did that. She stood up. She stood up for the rights for people being captured in the streets like herd of animals, and she lost her life because of that.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged accountability for Good's death.
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): People in positions of power have already passed judgment. From the president, to the vice president to Kristi Noem have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate. It feels to me like we're at one of those inflection points, that simply asking our government to give us accountability, listen to local leaders, ratchet down the rhetoric, let people feel safe in their person, and let's let our kids go to school without fear.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Minneapolis schools were closed today in the wake of the shooting and after immigration agents clashed with people near one high school yesterday afternoon. For now, the city, no stranger to civil unrest, anxiously awaits what's to come while mourning one of its own.
DIEU DO: The place that Renee was killed yesterday was six blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered. The law enforcement response is the same, to lie, to cover up and to spin a different story on really what actually happened.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: As of late this afternoon, a GoFundMe campaign set up for Renee Good has raised close to $900,000 -- Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, Fred, what more have you seen on the streets and heard as you have talked to people there?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Geoff, anywhere you go in this city, there is palpable tension and a sense of deja vu. I'm standing near the site of yesterday's incident, and it's not far from where George Floyd was murdered. One person here, however, told me that, unlike George Floyd, which was a one-off, this seems unrelenting. The federal enforcement surge began several days ago, and it is targeting not just immigration enforcement or immigration, but, rather, also the expanding fraud investigation involving Minnesota state programs, which the administration has vowed to crack down on and which targets specifically the Somali immigrant community in this city.
GEOFF BENNETT: We know the mayor and other Democrats are urging ICE to leave this city. Based on your reporting, what's expected of the immigration enforcement effort in the days ahead?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: If anything, Geoff, word is that they are going to escalate. The man in charge of Border Patrol, Greg Bovino, has been sighted in several locations in this city. More officers are being dispatched here, so there's no sense that it's going to diminish in any way. For their part, the protesters say they do not plan to let up in any of their activities and their vigilance. We take winter in our stride here in Minnesota, but this one is one that is not going to be forgotten soon.
GEOFF BENNETT: Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minneapolis for us tonight. Fred, our thanks to you.
AMNA NAWAZ: For a closer look at training for ICE agents and what we know, I'm joined now by Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. She's now at the Harvard Kennedy School. Juliette, welcome back to the show. Thanks for joining us.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, Former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary: Thanks for having me.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you see, there's competing narratives now on whether or not the ICE agent was justified in using deadly force here. There are federal guidelines, standardized training of some kind. Walk us through what those guidelines and the training shows when it comes to the use of deadly force.
JULIETTE KAYYEM: OK, so the Department of Homeland Security is guided or their agents are guided by rules and protocols regarding engagement with the community. So the number one priority is no loss of life. That is in their -- that is in DHS' own regulations. The second is de-escalation. We have heard that word a lot lately, which is, it's the responsibility of the law enforcement agent to ensure that they do not put themselves in a position in which there is imminent danger. There are all sorts of caveats and qualifications, but, as a general rule, police officers and law enforcement do not shoot into moving cars, do not put themselves in front of cars, because those are things that are easily de-escalated. The car, you can get the license plate. You know where the person likely lives at that stage. And so these rules guide both federal law enforcement and most state and local law enforcement. And that is why the videos are raising so many significant concerns about that interaction, that moment in which a federal law enforcement officer, the ICE agent, is engaged with a civilian who may or may not have known what they were expecting of her. I just want to add for your audience, because the politics of this are quite loud, the way it's talked about now is as if use of force is an on and on-or-off switch, right? Like, someone didn't comply, use of force, right? It doesn't work that way. Most good law enforcement and training, you would think about use of force as sort of a dimmer, up and down. And it's the responsibility of the armed agent to ensure that you are sort of bringing any sort of tension, any sort of interaction down, so that you don't result in the killing of an unarmed civilian who was not under any law enforcement orders or any search.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, Juliette, based on all of that, let me pull on that a little bit more from you here, and based on what we have seen in the videos, was there another way in which you might have expected the officer to respond in this incident?
JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes, I mean, step aside. Step aside. I mean, you could -- at that stage, he could -- he saw that it was a woman. We -- she's been accused of lots of things by the White House in terms of, was she engaged in activism, was she trying to run him down? He could have easily -- and some people looking at the videos believed that he actually wasn't in the line of sight of the car -- or the line of impact of the car. And you let the car go on and either pull it over 10 feet away or get the license plate. And so this interaction that results in not one, but multiple bullets being put through the window of an unarmed civilian, who may or may not have known what ICE was expecting of her, I think shows the challenges of these large deployments, ICE with an unclear mandate of what they're supposed to do, and the fact that you have not local law enforcement so engaged with communities that do not know them and would view them as a hostile.
AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask you too about the latest in what we have heard on the investigation. Minnesota state law enforcement officials are saying federal agencies are denying the state investigators access to the evidence. The Minnesota agency says it's now withdrawing from that probe. We saw the DHS secretary say that it's a matter of jurisdiction. What do you make of that? Is that standard?
JULIETTE KAYYEM: No. And it's absolutely not. It's -- basically, what has happened is because you had the secretary of homeland security and then the president and then today the vice president so aggressively conclude what the investigation is -- and I have to admit, just so, a very shameful maligning of who she is as a human being -- I mean, she's a mother and she was unarmed -- is -- and they called her a domestic terrorist. It is hard to imagine that this investigation would be objective, because they have already created that narrative. Now, one could argue that the FBI is not part of those agencies and will do this objectively, and one would hope that that was true, especially if it came out of the Minnesota FBI offices. But the more important thing is, in most of these cases, in all -- I can't think of another case -- where you have an incident like this, you have concurrent investigations, because you don't know what's going to result here. It might be a federal crime, but it might not rise to that level, and it would still be a state crime. So, in most cases, we often hear of concurrent investigations, concurrent prosecutions, because we don't quite know what's going to happen at the start. Unfortunately, the White House has created a narrative of what this is. And I would anticipate that the state is separately going to start an investigation because of their lack of confidence in the federal investigation.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is Juliette Kayyem, formerly of DHS, now at the Harvard Kennedy School. Juliette, thank you.
JULIETTE KAYYEM: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: We start today's other headlines in Iran. Across that country, Internet and phone service were almost completely shut off amid widening protests over the state of the country's economy. It comes after exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi posted on social media that demonstrators should take to the streets, and he warned Iran's leadership that the world and President Trump are -- quote -- "closely watching you." Meantime footage released today shows protesters tearing the Iranian flag in half, with some chanting, "Long live the king," a show of support for Pahlavi, whose late father fled Iran during the country's 1979 revolution.
In Ukraine, emergency crews raced to restore power today to hundreds of thousands of people after Russia's military struck energy targets overnight. The attacks affected two southeastern regions, with a local official saying it was the widest blackout since the start of the war. The city of Dnipro was plunged into darkness, even as the region is bracing for colder weather later this week. Ukrainian officials have condemned what they call Russia's strategy of weaponizing winter. Ukraine's energy minister says power has been restored to one of the affected regions.
United Nations officials are condemning the Trump administration's decision to pull out of dozens of international organizations. That includes a foundational treaty aimed at addressing the effects of climate change. The U.N.'s climate chief called that decision "a colossal own goal which will leave the U.S. less secure and less prosperous." President Trump signed an executive order yesterday that suspends support for 66 agencies and commissions, many of them U.N.-related. The White House described them as contrary to the interests of the United States.
Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer announced today that he will retire at the end of his term.
(APPLAUSE)
GEOFF BENNETT: The longest-serving Democrat in Congress got a standing ovation this morning from his colleagues in the House, where he has served for more than four decades. In his remarks, Hoyer described his early days in Congress in 1981, when, as he put it, most Republicans and Democrats worked together in a collegial and productive way. He said Congress needs to return to that shared purpose.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): I am deeply concerned that this House is not living up to the founders' goals. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to examine their conscience, renew their courage, and carry out the responsibilities that the first article of the Constitution demands.
GEOFF BENNETT: Hoyer, who is 86, was the number two Democrat in the House for nearly 20 years, serving twice as House majority leader under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will also retire after this term.
White House officials said today that it was more economical to tear down the East Wing to make way for President Trump's ballroom than it would have been to renovate it.
JOSH FISHER, White House Office of Administration: The cost analysis proved that demolition and reconstruction provided the lowest total cost ownership and most effective long-term strategy.
GEOFF BENNETT: At a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, officials and architects cited structural issues, water leakage and mold as reasons for tearing down the structure entirely. They also laid out details for the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. It was the first time that such plans have been made public. The Trump administration tore down the East Wing in October, leading to a lawsuit from preservationists.
The nation's trade deficit has dropped to its lowest level since 2009. The Commerce Department said today that the gap shrank to around $29 billion in October. That's a 39 percent drop from the month before and comes amid President Trump's sweeping tariffs on imports into the U.S. Today's report was delayed by last year's government shutdown, which has muddled the picture for the health of the world's biggest economy.
On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed, even as big defense stocks saw a boost from President Trump, saying he wants to increase military spending. The Dow Jones industrial average added 270 points on the day. The Nasdaq lost ground, giving back around 100 points. The S&P 500 ended virtually unchanged.
Still to come on the "News Hour": the state of U.S. relations with Venezuela's neighbor Colombia after a presidential phone call; lawmakers from both sides of the aisle weigh in on the Trump administration's foreign policy; and we visit the Pittsburgh hospital at the center of the HBO medical drama "The Pitt."
AMNA NAWAZ: Today, the Venezuelan government vowed to release political and foreign prisoners who have been held by the regime long before U.S. forces seized President Nicolas Maduro last weekend. That release has been a longstanding demand of the Venezuelan opposition.
GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Venezuela's neighbor Colombia, a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., appears to be off the president's sights after a single phone call last night. Nick Schifrin has our story.
NICK SCHIFRIN: On Venezuelan TV today, what the government called a gesture of peace, a promise to release political and foreign prisoners, an effort by Maduro's former deputies to convince the world they will not continue the policies of the now ousted dictator.
JORGE RODRIGUEZ, President, Venezuelan National Assembly (through translator): Consider this as the contribution that we must all make to ensure that our republic continues its peaceful life and pursuit of prosperity.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Human rights groups estimate up to 900 political prisoners are held in Venezuela, many detained following the 2024 election, that the U.S. and international observers say was won by the opposition. Recently, those opposition leaders have demanded the prisoners' release. The U.S. today continue to demand cooperation.
J.D. VANCE, Vice President of the United States: I'm chairing the meeting that we do on this among White House principals to talk about next steps to try to ensure that Venezuela is stable and, as the president has directed us to do, to ensure that the new Venezuelan government actually listens to the United States and does what the United States needs it to do under our country's best interests.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And, today, Venezuela was not the only government trying to fulfill U.S. interests. For months, the president has issued verbal attacks...
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Colombia is out of control, and now they have the worst president they have ever had.
NICK SCHIFRIN: ... and threats at Colombian President Gustavo Petro:
DONALD TRUMP: He better wise up or he will be next. He will be next too.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Culminating on Sunday with an endorsement of military action.
DONALD TRUMP: He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.
QUESTION: So there will be an operation by the U.S.?
DONALD TRUMP: It sounds good to me.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For his part, Petro has been among the president's most vocal critics.
GUSTAVO PETRO, Colombian President (through translator): We must respond, as humanity has already done, by standing firm and taking to the streets to defend people's rights, the rights of democracy not to be governed by tyrannies.
NICK SCHIFRIN: On social media, Petro called Trump's comments illegitimate threats and likened his actions to Hitler's. But then came a phone call last night and, just minutes later, Petro flipped the script, literally.
GUSTAVO PETRO (through translator): I had a speech prepared for today. Now I have to give another.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Expressing hopes to continue dialogue and cooperation on clean energy. The president agreed, writing the conversation was -- quote -- "a great honor" and that Petro has accepted an invitation to meet in Washington in the future. It is a rapid, remarkable reversal and reminder of how much the president's international relations is about personal relations, a lesson that Brazilian President Lula Inacio da Silva learned after a chance meeting.
DONALD TRUMP: I was walking up to my teleprompter. I said, I don't have a teleprompter. But just before that, I met with President Lula, and I found him to be very good.
KEVIN WHITAKER, Former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia: His personal relations with foreign leaders are really key, a key to how -- what the nature of the bilateral relationship is more generally.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Kevin Whitaker was ambassador to Colombia from 2014 until 2019 under Presidents Obama and Trump.
KEVIN WHITAKER: One of the things that characterizes the Trump administration, especially Trump 2.0 now, is that policy formulation resides with the president full stop. And so getting through to the president and saying and doing things that are pleasing to him are about the only way for a foreign government to manipulate policy.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Whitaker calls Colombia a key U.S. regional ally in confronting the multibillion-dollar cocaine trafficking industry. But under Petro, cocaine production is at an all-time high.
KEVIN WHITAKER: Petro's failure to address the cocaine problem, both by ending any eradication of coca, but also by taking his foot off the pedal in terms of military actions against these illegal armed groups, I think is a real source of friction between the two countries. If yesterday's phone call begins a process of recuperating that relationship, that would be a very good thing.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And it would be a thaw, apparently agreed on a single phone call. For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
AMNA NAWAZ: On Capitol Hill today, three major votes testing Trump's policies and U.S. policy on big issues, including military action in Venezuela and the expired Affordable Care Act subsidies. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been covering it all from chamber to chamber at the Capitol, where she joins me now. So, Lisa, let's begin in the Senate, where we saw a rare rebuke there of the president on the issue of Venezuela. What happened?
LISA DESJARDINS: Right. The Senate voted today to advance in a bill that would essentially say the U.S. can no longer add any military troops or -- in or around Venezuela. It would essentially ban much of what the president has said he would be doing. According to the supporters of it, it would mean no blockade, none of that. This was a vote to advance that idea into next week. And in the end, it was a dramatic vote. We didn't know if it had the votes to pass going into the chamber. It did pass, thanks to five Republicans in the Senate who sided with Democrats. You can take a look at who those five Republicans are, two of them unexpected, Senators Josh Hawley and Todd Young. They were someone who had criticized the president on this, but we weren't sure if they were actually going to vote against him in the end. They did. So, as I say, this was procedural, but it's important because it means next week there will be a full debate on the military action in Venezuela and there will be a vote on this bill. It is expected to pass. Now, it has a steep uphill climb in the House, and President Trump has threatened to veto this bill. So, in a way, it is symbolic, but it's a very important symbol, because this is Congress asserting congressional power for maybe one of the first times at least this term of office against President Trump, and it is about a specific instance. I want to show you what this measure actually says, what it would do about Venezuela. It reads, reading from the text: "Congress hereby directs the president to terminate the use of the United States armed forces to hostilities within or against Venezuela unless explicitly authorized." Now, as I say, it's about congressional power in a time when some, like Speaker Johnson, who I just spoke to yesterday, are indicating they really think the president can send the military almost anywhere without congressional authorization, short of a full-scale war. So it was an important vote today, and we will keep watching this next week.
AMNA NAWAZ: I know you will indeed. Meanwhile, let's turn now to the House, where lawmakers passed a three-year extension to those Affordable Care Act subsidies. That is despite opposition from Republican leadership. How did that pass and how likely is it to actually become law?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right, strange, another loss for House Republican leaders on the same day in the other chamber. This was brought to the floor by the rarest of means, a discharge petition, a literal petition which is a work-around the House leadership brought by moderate Republicans. And, today, it passed because 17 Republicans signed on to this three-year extension. None of them think it's the perfect way to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. But, Amna, what this vote today shows is so many of them are worried about the health care issue in November, worried about what the expiration of these subsidies mean for their constituents, that they were willing to push this. Now, it was a bit of an easier vote because no one thinks this three-year extension will actually go anywhere. It was rejected by the Senate last year. But what this vote does mean today is, it puts pressure on the Senate, which is trying to negotiate some kind of fix.
AMNA NAWAZ: So tell us a little bit more about that. What is happening on the Senate on this issue? And how possible is a deal to fix those expired subsidies there?
LISA DESJARDINS: OK, let's drill our focus on the Senate, because that is really where -- if the ACA subsidies are extended, that's where it will happen. There is a framework now being discussed. I want to show you what's in it at the moment by bipartisan senators. First, it's a two-year extension of these enhanced subsidies with an income cap. It also would include in it an expansion of health care savings accounts and it would possibly extend that enrollment window. Amna, the enrollment window ends one week from today for the Affordable Care Act. So, time is really of the essence. They do think perhaps they can do something retroactively if they don't figure this out all by next week, because they probably won't. But they're trying to get this done in the next month. The other issue with this is abortion. Abortion Republicans say that the Affordable Care Act policy right now which separates abortion coverage is not enough. They want it to say that, on the Affordable Care Act, you won't even have the option for abortion coverage. They see that as a major problem.
AMNA NAWAZ: There's another unusual vote I want to ask you about today, the House voting to uphold President Trump's first vetoes of his second term, even though those were bills that had passed unanimously. Tell us what we need to understand about that Lisa.
LISA DESJARDINS: We have a real theme here today, right? It is all about President Trump and Republican policies being tested. And this vote, I want to first talk about what exactly was in these bills that were vetoed. There were two of them. First, one of them dealt with a water pipeline that would be completed in Colorado. The other would be granting more land rights to the Miccosukee Tribe in Florida, which is in the Everglades. Now, both of those bills were passed unanimously, as you said. But, afterward, the sponsor of the Colorado bill ran into kind of a political argument with the president, and the tribe also criticized Trump's ICE detentions center in the Everglades. So both of the sponsors believe they were vetoed for political retribution. What it shows today, Amna, while these passed unanimously, these local bills, before, now roughly 180 Republicans voted against them, voted with the president, despite these being small-scale local bills.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is Lisa Desjardins getting her steps in on Capitol Hill covering both chambers for us today and some big votes. Lisa, thank you very much.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
AMNA NAWAZ: As we have been reporting, Congress has a lengthy list of priorities since returning this week, but it's been the administration's operation in Venezuela and what to do next that's dominated conversations on Capitol Hill.
GEOFF BENNETT: We get two views tonight, beginning with Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, with whom I spoke earlier today. Senator Slotkin, welcome back to the "News Hour."
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Thanks for having me.
GEOFF BENNETT: The vice president, J.D. Vance, today dismissed the war powers resolution that was advanced in the Senate and called the War Powers Act it was based on, he called it a fake and unconstitutional law. President Trump posted on social media: "This vote greatly hampers American self-defense and national security, impeding the president's authority as commander in chief," to which you would say what?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, I would say my guess is the reason they're complaining so loudly is because it was a bipartisan vote. We had five Republicans who voted with us who also agreed that, if you're going to go get the United States into a conflict, if you're going to go -- quote, unquote -- "own Venezuela," another country, you have got to come to Congress, according to the Constitution. So I think they're complaining loudly because they don't like how the vote went, and that meant -- that means we're going to be voting on further pieces next week on this war powers resolution. So, again, it's something that Democrat and Republicans, presidents, always sort of chafe under no matter who they are. And I wouldn't be surprised if we went back and saw if Mr. Vance was advocating for war powers issues when he was a senator.
GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump told The New York Times that the U.S. oversight of Venezuela, in his words, could last much longer than a year and only time will tell how long the U.S. will oversee that country. As a former CIA officer, I know you did three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military. What do you see as the implications of a prolonged U.S. engagement in Venezuela?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, first of all, I think we just have to acknowledge how -- what a 180 the president has done on these foreign entanglements. He literally ran on no foreign wars and complained bitterly about Iraq and Afghanistan. And here he is saying that we own Venezuela and it's going to be years that we're going to be responsible for it. First of all, I don't think there's anyone, Democrat or Republican, who's looking to get into another prolonged conflict. But I also think, like, my experience in Iraq is, everything we do militarily starts off as a limited plan, right? Iraq was going to be short and in and out, Afghanistan, things like Vietnam. So the president -- if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. His idea that this is going to be neat and clean and easy and we're going to make a lot of money from our oil companies, to me, is just a little bit of wishful thinking and certainly, given our history, not something that the average American is looking to do.
GEOFF BENNETT: The administration's decision to shift away from supporting Venezuelan opposition figures in favor of working with loyalists to the previous regime, what do you see as the impact of that approach on Venezuela's democracy movement?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, it's interesting because this -- the president said over and over and his folks said over and over that the government of Venezuela is illegitimate, right? There was an election in 2022. They didn't win. They falsified that election. And so they're not a legitimate government. And now we're working with that illegitimate government. And I think, just as importantly for the president's agenda, he's talked about the oil and the oil fields and getting American executives in there. They don't want to do deals with an illegitimate government where they can be sued afterwards for that contract. So, again, it's confusing to me why the president, who has spent all this time talking about getting rid of that administration, took out Maduro and is now working with this vice president.
GEOFF BENNETT: On the other hand, the administration argues its Venezuela strategy could revive oil revenues, fracture criminal networks, push back the influence that Russia and China has in the hemisphere. If that turns out to be right -- I know Democrats have a lot of issues with the way this was done. But if he turns out to be right, I mean, could this represent a new doctrine of us leadership in Latin America?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, I think certainly there's lots of talk in the hallways here that he's really taking sort of an approach where American leadership around the world is not really needed. What we do care about is leadership in the hemisphere, right, in our backyard, and that different countries around the world would have zones of influence. Russia would have Europe as a zone of influence. China would have Asia and we would have the Western Hemisphere. He's clearly talking about that with the Monroe document. But I think the world is a globalized place. And just because you're the big heavy in our region doesn't mean that things go right across the world. Now, if terrorists are kicked out or drug networks are dismantled, that's good. That's a great thing. And we like that. But I think this idea that we can just do what we want and do it for the oil, as he said over and over again, is not something that has a great shelf life when you think about other countries doing the same exact thing abroad.
GEOFF BENNETT: You have described the president's actions in Venezuela as a distraction from domestic priorities like health care, rising housing costs. How should Democrats frame this moment in a way that breaks through and keeps the focus where voters are feeling it the most?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, I think what the president's doing -- I have said this before. I have three brothers. And I remember growing up. They'd wave their hand over here, distract me, and then like gut-punch me. I think that's what the president is doing with all these foreign entanglements, right? He's gone after nine different regions of the world militarily, seven countries, two oceans. That's the most any single president has done, for diversity of military operations in their first year, more strikes in his first year than in Joe Biden's four years. So he's really a foreign policy president. And I think he's doing that because he doesn't want to talk about domestic issues. He doesn't have a plan for health care. He certainly doesn't have a plan for housing. I just put out something today, and we're all talking about Venezuela, including on this show. And we're not talking about the things that actually capture Americans' interests, which is, can I buy a home? Can I afford health insurance? Can I afford childcare, et cetera, et cetera. So he's doing the foreign thing to distract from him having no plan on the domestic side.
GEOFF BENNETT: And Democrats see an opening?
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Well, it's not even just a Democratic thing. It's like he's coming up on his one-year anniversary when he was sworn in as president, right? He said on his first day he was going to do all these changes on inflation, all these changes on the price of just being a middle-class person in America. Where are we one year out? The guy has just not done any of it. It's almost shocking, because he's a populist, right? So it's not Democrats see an opening. The American public is saying, like, why are we talking about Venezuela and Greenland and all these places when my health insurance just doubled, when I can't buy my first home until I'm 45 years old? So it's not just a Democrat-Republican thing. It's just an American thing. And he ran on this very stuff in his campaign. So he should get it.
GEOFF BENNETT: Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, thanks again for being with us.
SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: You bet. Thanks.
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, while the war powers resolution to limit further action in Venezuela advanced in the Senate today, its future in the House is less certain. For a Republican perspective, I spoke earlier to Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke. Congressman Zinke, welcome back to the "NewsHour." Thank you for joining us.
REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT): My pleasure.
AMNA NAWAZ: A lot of activity on Capitol Hill today. I want to ask you first not about what happened in the House, but what we saw in the Senate, where some of your Republican colleagues broke ranks, joined the Democrats and voted to advance the war powers resolution that would limit the president's ability to take further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. How do you look at that? Was that the right move, and would you support a similar move in the House?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, there's always been a tension between Article I, Congress, and Article II, the president. In this case, I will stand with the Constitution, Article I. The president has that authority. And in Venezuela, it's important to realize that, if you look at Panama, which was justified under three conditions -- one is that Venezuela, in this case, Maduro, was a threat to the United States because he was a drug trafficker; 52 pages of indictment would say he was. And, secondly, he wasn't a legitimate leader, meaning the election was fraudulent. In Panama, we also had Panama Canal, but, going forward, the president had the authority to go ahead and remove Maduro. So I don't think there's any question of the reality or Constitution. I think the big question in Venezuela is, what next? When you exercise the Monroe Doctrine, it's a two-way street. It comes with a responsibility to make sure that now, since Maduro has been removed, that Venezuela -- the conditions are set where Venezuela can prosper.
AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask you more about what's next in Venezuela, but just to follow up in terms of congressional authority here, the president's also threatened unilateral action in other countries, in Colombia, Mexico, Iran, and Greenland. When, in your view, does he require congressional approval to take that action?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, yes, good question. And I think it's this. Number one, with the president, he never takes anything off the table. That's President Donald J. Trump. But, on Greenland, for instance, those conditions that would require a congressional approval are there, because, in the case of Venezuela, you had a leader that was a narcotrafficker, indicted. That is not the case in Greenland. Secondly, Greenland produces -- is no threat to us. And, lastly, they have a duly elected authority in Greenland. So I think military action in case of Greenland would require a congressional approval by law and by Constitution.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, only in Greenland, not with the other countries I named there; is that correct?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, in -- let's say in Colombia, if Colombia continues their operations of trafficking drugs. Now, their leader is duly elected. So that would not be the case. But the president also has the responsibility constitutionally to make sure we protect this country. Drugs coming in this country kill more people than, say, a missile does. So if the president views that there's a threat, and that threat is real, in the case of drugs, then I think it's probably on the table. But, again, what I appreciate is taking action, but action within the Constitution. I think that's important.
AMNA NAWAZ: One of the questions we have heard a lot is, if this was really about the drugs, and Maduro was a narcotrafficker, as you have called him as well, then why leave in place his vice president, who is now acting as president, who was part of this entire regime? What kind of message does that send?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, what it tells the message is, listen and make sure you take guidance. When the president says we're in control, I can tell you the present administration in Venezuela doesn't have a lot of latitude to do much other than follow the international law, and basically do as they're told to make sure that Venezuela prospers. In the case of oil, it's not about oil. Remember, Venezuela had the largest population of Hezbollah and Hamas outside of the Middle East. And the main influencers in Venezuela were Cubans, not because the Cubans wanted to be there, but because Cuba provided a security force around Maduro because he doesn't have the support of the population itself. So, in the case of Venezuela, what I would prefer is, we come across as a liberator, rather than a conqueror, and we provide the necessary means for Venezuela to have free and fair elections and to prosper. The oil is being -- probably will go to a third country, as far as a holding pattern, and then that oil will be distributed in the best interest of the Venezuelan people, which will be helpful.
AMNA NAWAZ: We have also now seen President Trump say he expects U.S. oversight of Venezuela, both the government and running the country's oil supplies, to last for years. In your opinion, does that send the message that we're liberators and not conquerors?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: I have a lot of confidence actually in Venezuela to put a free and fair election together. Some of the problems are, the opposition is not unified. So if you're going to have a free and fair election, you want to make sure there's legitimate opposition. And most the opposition, quite frankly, is not in country because they have been forced to leave under the Maduro regime. So I'm confident, number one, we will see a plan from the administration. It's hard to dictate a plan when this operation was secret, as it was required to be. I think, going forward, what I'd like to see is a detailed plan going forward, what are the milestones that must be reached, and to make sure that Venezuela is free and fair and the foreign influence is removed, especially from our adversaries,.
AMNA NAWAZ: If I may, Congressman, I think the opposition in Venezuela would argue that they are in fact unified. They won about 70 percent of the vote in that 2024 election. So how quickly would you like to see some kind of democratic transition in that country?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, I would like to see a plan that lays out between tomorrow and the end of the year to include free and fair elections. And I think Secretary Rubio and his team are looking at that. And, look, the sooner the better. The sooner we have a transition towards free and fair elections and represent the people and make sure their resources go to help Venezuela. The resources are being siphoned off, well below market. And the idea is to make sure those resources go -- sold on the open market at fair price and then go into a holding account and then distributed to make sure that Venezuela's people benefit, and not just the regime. But to your earlier point about the regime in place, you're right. They're not our first choice. They're hardly reputable. And I don't trust them. I don't think we should as a nation either. But, right now, they have very little latitude to go outside what America is demanding, is that, look, is that this is it. You cannot transport. You cannot be a narcotrafficker, and you need to begin a process for transition for elections.
AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman, before I let you go, I just want to ask you briefly about your vote today, which was against the extension of those Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies that expired at the end of last year. I believe some 10,000 Montanans qualified for those last year. Just briefly, what's your message to them about what your plan is to help them afford their health care?
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Well, how about not spending more money on a system that's broke? I think the goal of any health care, especially in the United States, is what? Access, affordability and quality care. And Obamacare didn't deliver that. So let's figure out how to reduce costs, but how to have better care. And COVID extensions -- COVID is over. Now, I think everyone recognizes the health care costs are too much and too great. But why don't we look at the insurance companies? Why don't we look at the pharmaceuticals, which the president is doing? And the insurance companies are making billions of dollars, billions of dollars. Who has control of that? So I think we need to go back and start from the beginning and say, this is what we want. We want quality care. We want to make sure that access to care and affordability and make sure rural hospitals in Montana and the $50 billion to shore up rural hospitals in Montana is important. So I'm hoping both sides recognize that health care is a problem. The Obamacare -- there's a lot of good in Obamacare, especially preexisting conditions. But there are a lot of things that didn't work, especially giving the insurance companies and pharmaceuticals the edge.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that's Congressman Ryan Zinke, Republican from Montana, joining us tonight. Congressman, thank you. It's good to speak with you.
REP. RYAN ZINKE: Always a pleasure.
GEOFF BENNETT: HBO's pulse-pounding medical drama "The Pitt" is back for season two, fresh off critical praise and five Emmy wins. Its unflinching look at a single emergency room shift struck an especially deep chord with one group, frontline health care workers. To understand why, I traveled to the actual Pitt, the real Pittsburgh hospital that doubles as a key location in the show. It's part of our ongoing series on the intersection of arts and health, part of our Canvas coverage.
NOAH WYLE, Actor: The moment everybody needed me the most, I wasn't there. Couldn't do it. I choked.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the final moments of season one of "The Pitt," Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle, delivers a wrenching emotional unraveling after an especially grueling shift in the E.R.
DR. BRENT RAU, Director of Emergency Medicine, Allegheny General Hospital: It's the mental exhaustion, just seeing people on the worst day of their lives and trying their best to help with those people. Unfortunately, there's also not a ton of time to sit down and kind of -- grief until later maybe in your shift or maybe when you get home.
GEOFF BENNETT: For Dr. Brent Rau, the scene is more than just a compelling storyline. He's lived it.
DR. BRENT RAU: Hello, sir. Hi, I'm
Dr. Rau.
GEOFF BENNETT: Here at Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital, Dr. Rau is known as the real life Dr. Robby. He oversees the emergency department. When you first saw "The Pitt," what felt most true to your own experience?
DR. BRENT RAU: The raw emotions that they do show, especially in that first season. The things that I think a lot of us carry with us are probably more the losses, the downs, sights, sounds that you will never forget, screams that you will never forget. And, unfortunately, you kind of carry those with you. I think we all do in health care, especially in the emergency department.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the series, Allegheny General Hospital, the large nonprofit hospital on Pittsburgh's North Side, becomes the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. The production team filmed the lobby and all the exterior shots on site. And those real-world details also informed the set back in Burbank.
DR. BOBBY KAPUR, Chair of Emergency Medicine, Allegheny Health Network: There's no soundtrack to the show. As soon as the show begins, you're immersed in the emergency department. All the sounds and the voices and the bells and the whistles and the movement of patients on the gurneys is all you really hear. And so in that sense, it's quite authentic and immersive. It looks like we're well staffed back here, though.
WOMAN: We are.
GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Bobby Kapur oversees emergency medicine across 14 hospitals in the Allegheny Health Network. An E.R. physician for more than 20 years, Kapur has tracked Noah Wyle's career since his own medical school days, when Wyle first appeared as Dr. John Carter on E.R. Last year, he and his teenage son sat down together every Thursday night for the first season of "The Pitt."
NOAH WYLE: Well, your son Flynn is critically ill. And the longer that we wait, the worse this can get.
DR. BOBBY KAPUR: Yes, we'd almost be like a commentator on an NFL football game. I'd sit down. And he would watch him. I'm like, I think they're going to do this next. And then they're going to do this. And after that, this will be the diagnosis. And, usually, I'd enjoy being right.
GEOFF BENNETT: Really?
(LAUGHTER)
DR. BOBBY KAPUR: And he's like: "Oh, dad, you really know what you're doing."
GEOFF BENNETT: So it took "The Pitt" for your son to be impressed by what you do for a living?
(LAUGHTER)
DR. BOBBY KAPUR: Because I usually don't really talk too much about it.
KATHY SIKORA, Director of Emergency Services, Allegheny General Hospital: You know, all of a sudden, I have moms who never really talked about anything at home with their kids. And their kids really didn't know what they did, nor did they care. Now they're the big shot, right? They tell their friends at school about what their mom does in an emergency department. Our registration census.
GEOFF BENNETT: Kathy Sikora is a registered nurse and oversees operations within the emergency department at Allegheny General. She's the hospital's own Dana Evans, the tough no-nonsense charge nurse on "The Pitt." Sikora met with Katherine LaNasa, the actress behind the character, during production of season two. Is there a story or a storyline that really, for you, rang true?
KATHY SIKORA: Well, met with Katherine LaNasa, as the role of Dana, was actually struck, I was too just a few short years ago, pretty severely, struck unexpectedly, and still have residual issues, right, with concussion. But that's an issue that we face across the country in emergency departments. Most of the work force in the United States doesn't expect to come to work and be abused, either physically or verbally, but unfortunately that's our harsh reality.
ACTRESS: What are you going to do to protect the rest of us?
ACTRESS: Violence against health care workers is a national problem.
ACTOR: And it's only getting worse.
GEOFF BENNETT: Sikora says many of her patients' frustrations stemmed from long wait times. Allegheny General had the city's longest last year, and the crowded waiting room depicted on the show and seen daily in real life became a defining image.
KATHY SIKORA: You truly need to be a Green Beret to work in a busy waiting room. As you can imagine, you saw the waiting room in "The Pitt."
GEOFF BENNETT: Right.
KATHY SIKORA: That was my waiting room.
KATHERINE LANASA, Actress: Where do you people think you are, huh? This ain't Philly.
GEOFF BENNETT: After a $45 million revamp, Sikora says those issues are far more manageable.
KATHY SIKORA: We're starting patients in our initial waiting room, and then we're getting them right back really quickly, getting all their tests started and then progressing them along. So no longer are they coming to one waiting room and sitting there.
GEOFF BENNETT: She says it's a costly renovation to the urban hospital that "The Pitt" helped justify.
KATHY SIKORA: Everyone already knew that to do something in our existing space on our city block here in Pittsburgh on the North Side, we were going to have to spend a good deal of money. What I think the show helped do by what it showed was actually validate what everyone really already knew that we needed to do and spend.
WOMAN: "The Pitt" is the best medical show that I have ever seen.
GEOFF BENNETT: Outside the walls of Allegheny General, the show's realism has connected with health care workers across the country.
MAN: I freaking love it.
WOMAN: Almost a little too real, honestly, a little too real.
GEOFF BENNETT: That realism is the product of a deliberate collaboration. Each scene is filmed with an E.R. doctor on set guiding the production team through the details of emergency care.
DR. CHRISTOPHER MORRIS, Emergency Room Doctor, Allegheny General Hospital: The insurance companies are not going to give you an issue.
GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Christopher Morris, an E.R. physician at Allegheny General, consulted actress Fiona Dourif who plays Dr. Cassie McKay, on a scene that he's faced many times throughout his 10-year career.
FIONA DOURIF, Actress: What's her name?
DR. CHRISTOPHER MORRIS: A car pulled up into the front of the hospital and it was a female that was unresponsive, presumably from an overdose. And Fiona said she was going to check the pupils, so she wanted me to show her how to do that.
FIONA DOURIF: Pupils, pinpoint. I need...
ACTOR: Narcan.
DR. CHRISTOPHER MORRIS: Says, OK, I have to give Narcan in the scene. How do I do this? So I kind of showed her how to do an internasal Narcan. And the director was like, OK, Dr. Morris, now, how would you pull this young female out of the car? I said, I would just pull her out of the car like any other person would do, you know?
FIONA DOURIF: They're not responding to Narcan. We might need to intubate.
GEOFF BENNETT: Showcasing this authenticity and medical skill comes at a critical time. After a pandemic that drove physician burnout to its highest level in a decade, rates remain alarmingly high. In emergency departments today, nearly half of all doctors report feeling symptoms of burnout.
DR. BRENT RAU: You know, one day you would walk outside and there's people holding up signs thanking heroes, and then, two weeks later, you turn on TV and there's people throwing eggs at physicians walking to the hospital because they're all part of some hoax.
PROTESTERS: No more shots!
GEOFF BENNETT: That backlash against medical science is among the storylines explored in the show's first season.
ACTRESS: He already looks better.
NOAH WYLE: He is not. And by refusing the spinal tap, we don't know how to help him.
GEOFF BENNETT: How does having a TV show that's based on your hospital, how does that amplify the work that you do?
DR. BOBBY KAPUR: It boosts the morale and the pride of the people that are working in the emergency department and also in emergency medicine across the country. I think it really does show that the work that's being done in the emergency department is quite heroic still.
MAN: Noah Wyle.
(CHEERING)
GEOFF BENNETT: Another morale boost came in September with an Emmy dedicated to them by the show's star.
NOAH WYLE: To anybody who's going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job. This is for you.
(CHEERING)
DR. BRENT RAU: It's exciting just to be able to see how people can appreciate a little bit more of what we do.
GEOFF BENNETT: Right.
DR. BRENT RAU: This was sent to me by my friend afterwards.
GEOFF BENNETT: I mean, that's uncanny actually.
DR. BRENT RAU: Yes.
GEOFF BENNETT: And for Dr. Rau, one extra perk.
DR. BRENT RAU: And, listen, I'm glad that there's a good-looking guy playing me on TV.
(LAUGHTER)
AMNA NAWAZ: And a news update before we go. Federal agents were involved in a shooting this afternoon in Portland, Oregon, according to police. Two people were wounded, according to the FBI in Portland. The conditions of those two people are unknown.
GEOFF BENNETT: You can follow us online for more. And, remember, there's a lot more on our Web site, including a breakdown of the latest reporting about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis. We're continuing to update our coverage with the latest at PBS.org/NewsHour.
AMNA NAWAZ: And be sure to join us tomorrow night for the analysis of Brooks and Capehart on this busy week of news. And that is the "News Hour" for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett. For all of us here at the PBS "News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.