February 25, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the NewsHour tonight, President Trump promotes his agenda and airs his grievances in the longest State of the Union speech in history. We fact-checked some of his claims. The controversial nominee for Surgeon General faces congressional scrutiny over her medical qualifications. And the Democratic governor of Kentucky discusses the messages that are resonating with voters in his red state. Most people aren't as political as we think they are. When they're getting up in the morning, they're not thinking about the next political race. They're thinking about their job and whether they can support their family. Welcome to the NewsHour. President Trump touted the economy and his immigration policies in a record-long State of the Union address, and he'll soon take those messages on the road. The White House is hoping President Trump can convince Americans to stay the course, as Democrats today slam the speech for being too partisan, divisive, and out of touch with people's economic hardships. To recap the big night and to fact-check the president's remarks, we start with our White House correspondent, Liz Landers. Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States. President Trump, in a marathon address, praised his second term agenda as a transformation for America. It is indeed a turnaround for the ages. And promised in many ways to stay the course, even as his approval ratings have plummeted. The state of our union is strong. The longest state of the union ever given, Mr. Trump spoke for an hour, 48 minutes. In front of likely his largest TV audience before the midterms, the president's speech was an opportunity for a much needed reset. Our latest PBS NPR Marist poll shows six in 10 Americans say the country is in a worse place than a year ago. Addressing one of voters' greatest concerns right away, Trump put affordability front and center. Just hold on a little while. We're getting it down. And soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve. He rattled off positive economic data on inflation, gas prices, mortgage rates and the soaring stock market. And he put blame on Democrats. Suddenly used the word affordability. They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them. One policy promise the president made last night. AMNA NAWAZ, President of the United States, Trump said he would offer Americans a new type of retirement account that would resemble plans offered to federal workers, complete with matching government contributions. DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, We will match your contribution with up to $1,000 each year, as we ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market. AMNA NAWAZ, President of the United States, Four Supreme Court justices were seated in the front row. DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, It just came down. Very unfortunate ruling. AMNA NAWAZ, President of the United States, Face to face with the president, just days after the court handed him his term's biggest legal defeat on tariffs. Trump promised to soldier on with the cornerstone of his economic agenda. Congressional action will not be necessary. It's already time-tested and approved. On foreign policy, the president addressed rising tensions with Iran ahead of talks expected in Geneva tomorrow. My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen. That moment drawing some of the biggest bipartisan applause of the night, as did some of the president's high-profile guests. Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Welcoming the team into the chamber, Mr. Trump promised to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor to Team USA goalie Connor Hellebuck. And there were more awards in Made for TV moments, presenting two Congressional Medals of Honor to service members, as well as bestowing Purple Hearts to D.C. National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe and posthumously to fellow Guard member Sarah Beckstrom. Both were shot in D.C. last year. The speech was also marked by protests from Democrats. On Jeffrey Epstein, some members wore redacted pins, calling for the Justice Department to release more of the files. And a number of the late sex offenders' own victims were guests of the Democrats in the chamber. The protests, mostly silent, but not all. The greatest contrast of the night, and possibly the most heated, came when the president defended his immigration crackdown. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Mr. Trump chastised Democrats while Republicans stood and applauded for more than a minute. You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. Democrats shouted back. The removal of criminal aliens. About the shooting deaths of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Preddy, in Minneapolis last month. And notably, there were boycotts. More than two dozen fewer Democrats were in the chamber. Many of them were at a counter-protest outside the Capitol. In November, are you ready to finish the job? In November, are you ready to throw the bums out? And the official Democratic response. In his speech tonight, the president did what he always does. He lied, he scapegoated, and he distracted. And he offered no real solutions. New Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger focused where the president also focused, addressing Americans' affordability concerns. Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? We all know the answer is no. Reaction today fell along partisan political lines. I think that we've got a lot of momentum here, but the president said this last night. We inherited a mess. Our ask to the American people is let us continue to fix this mess. So Donald Trump is lying and the American people can either believe what Donald Trump says or they can believe the monthly bills. but they cannot believe both. Presidents often hit the road after the speech to sell their policies directly to the American people. President Trump will push his economic message in Texas at the end of this week, Amna, ahead of that state's primary elections on Tuesday. Liz, as you just reported there, the president talked a lot about the strength of the economy, two claims he made I want to ask you about. One, about the price of gas, and the other, that getting rid of fraud would enable the U.S. to have a balanced budget, as he put it, overnight. What can you tell us about those? Let's start with the second part about balancing the budget. So that's implausible. We crunched some numbers. We looked at the math here. The federal deficit in 2025 was $1.8 trillion. The 2024 estimate of fraud in the U.S. Government Accountability Office had a range between $233 to $521 billion. That's a lot of fraud. But even if you eliminated all of the government fraud, the federal deficit would still only be reduced by a third there. And then on that second point of gas prices, we looked at gas prices all across the country. The president said that they are below $2.30 in most states. That is not true. Gas prices have fallen as he's been in office since he was inaugurated last year. The price of gas was around $3.11 a gallon. Now it's down to $2.97 a gallon today, as AAA says, but no state has an average of under $2.30 a gallon, again, per those AAA statistics. Same with GasBuddy. The state with the lowest average price of gas is in Oklahoma, which has $2.40 a gallon, according to AAA. The president also made a claim about reducing the number of Americans receiving food assistance. Take a listen to what he said. And in one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off of food stamps. Liz, what should we understand about that? So the data from the Agriculture Department found that a number of people who receive these Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP benefits, as most people know them, that did decline by 2.6 million people on those benefits from November of 2024 to November of last year. However, that 2.4 million person statistic, the figure that the president refers to, is likely Americans who are projected to lose those benefits following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act over the summer. So that's not necessarily people who were able to afford to get off of these SNAP benefits. That legislation expanded work requirements. So this analysis came from the Congressional Budget Office report, which is why at the time Democrats were concerned about people losing access to those SNAP benefits. We also heard the president continue to make false statements about the elections, including this claim will play for people here that many undocumented immigrants are voting in federal elections. Take a listen. To stop illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections, that cheating is rampant in our elections. It's rampant. What do we know about that, Liz? That's an outright falsehood. This has been disproven over and over again by the president's own Department of Homeland Security and a number of other places that have looked at whether there are non-citizens voting in this country. It happens at an infinitesimally small level. For example, the Department of Homeland Security did a study after the 2024 election. 49.5 million voter registrations were checked. About 10,000 cases were referred for additional investigation of non-citizenship. Amna, that's 0.02 percent of the names that were processed. Another example, the Heritage Foundation, they looked at voter fraud cases that were brought by prosecutors. Only 85 cases involving allegations of non-citizen voting were found over a two-decade, 20-year period from 2002 to 2023. And also these states do these individual voter roll checks as well. One example, Georgia, a really important swing state. They did a 2024 audit. Their secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, found 20 non-citizens out of 8.2 million registered voters in that state. And, Amna, of course, Georgia in particular is a state that has the attention of the president. Right here, we're seeing there is not evidence of noncitizens voting in that state. All right. That is our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, reporting tonight. Liz, thank you. Of course. We start today's other headlines with ongoing fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files. Larry Summers is leaving his teaching post at Harvard University. The former Treasury Secretary appeared hundreds of times in the most recent batch of files related to the late sex offender. In a statement, Summers called his departure a difficult decision, saying he'll step down at the end of the school year. Another academic in Epstein's sphere, Nobel laureate Richard Axel of Columbia University's Brain Institute, says he too will resign. And Bill Gates reportedly apologized to staff at his foundation. and insisted he didn't participate in Epstein's crimes. That was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Gates denies doing anything illicit, and none of the men have been charged with any crimes. A new round of winter weather is sweeping through the northeastern U.S., even as millions cope with the lingering effects of Monday's blizzard. Forecasters expect another one to three inches of snow throughout the region today. In New Jersey, the National Weather Service warned drivers to watch out for snow and black ice on the roads. While in New York, streets and sidewalks were mostly clear after officials used huge amounts of salt and hired thousands of emergency shovelers to clear up the mess. Meantime, power is being restored for hundreds of thousands in places like Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. In Brazil, rescue teams are searching for dozens of people still missing after intense rains and floods killed at least 46 people Workers retrieved bodies from debris and thick mud with officials saying the sheer size of the affected area was complicating the search Also today mourners gathered for the funeral of an 11 boy who was killed in the floods His father remembered him as a boy with a big heart. I'm trying to pick up the pieces because my wife and daughter are still in the hospital, but I only have good memories of my son. It's about living and loving intensely. Authorities say at least 3,000 residents were forced to evacuate as of this morning, with officials warning that there could be more landslides from another bout of heavy rain expected tonight. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro today. Rubio was in St. Kitts and Nevis for meetings with leaders of the 15-member Caribbean community bloc. According to a State Department transcript, he told the group that, quote, Venezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago. It comes amid rising concerns over President Trump's policies in the Western Hemisphere that includes a series of boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers that have killed more than 150 people and a crippling oil blockade of Cuba that has paralyzed that country's economy. Meantime, Cuba's Interior Ministry says its soldiers killed four people aboard a speedboat registered in Florida that they say had opened fire on officers in Cuban waters. Officials provided few details, but say the incident took place about one mile off of Cuba's north coast. They say six others were wounded. It's unclear if any U.S. citizens were on the boat. In a social media post, Florida's attorney general said that he's ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state, and law enforcement to begin an investigation, adding that the Cuban government cannot be trusted. A U.S. federal judge is blocking the Justice Department from an unsupervised wholesale search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's electronic devices. In his ruling, magistrate judge William Porter said that allowing officials to do so would be a restraint on her First Amendment rights and called it the equivalent of leaving the government's Fox in charge of the Washington Post's penthouse. Federal agents seized several devices from Natanson's Virginia home in January, which her paper called outrageous. The judge says he will review the contents of Naitanson's devices himself. AI giant NVIDIA posted another blockbuster earnings report this afternoon. The company's profit nearly doubled in the fourth quarter to $43 billion thanks to strong chip sales. The better than expected result comes amid broader concerns that hopes for the AI sector have been overblown. Ahead of that report, stocks on Wall Street ended higher amid gains in tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained around 300 points on the day. The Nasdaq added nearly 300 points of its own. The S&P 500 closed higher for a second straight day. Still to come on the NewsHour, the head of the Border Patrol Union discusses President Trump's immigration crackdown. And Judy Woodruff delves into who the founding fathers left out and the effects of that 250 years later. This is the PBS NewsHour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. Dr. Casey Means, the popular wellness influencer and ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the president's nominee for Surgeon General, And she faced tough questions on Capitol Hill in a long-awaited confirmation hearing. As a prominent voice in the so-called Maha movement, some of her ideas, like prioritizing natural foods, reducing pesticides, and exercising consistently, are widely accepted. But she's also been criticized for more controversial views, from her statements on vaccines and the consumption of raw milk. Our William Brangham has this report. We are now the most chronically ill, high-income nation in the world. WILLIAM BRANGHAM, Former President of the United States of America, while celebrated as a potent fighter for the Maha movement, Dr. Casey Means was quickly pressed by some from the president's own party. Right off the bat, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who's also a doctor, grilled Means on her past statements incorrectly linking vaccines to autism. WILLIAM BRANGHAM, Former President of the United States, Do you believe that vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism? Until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned. There's been a lot of evidence showing that they're not implicated. Do you not accept that evidence? I do accept that evidence. I also think that science is never settled. Dr. Means is a wellness influencer. She went to Stanford Medical School but didn't finish her residency and doesn't have an active medical license. Today, Dr. Means said she believes vaccines save lives, but as the U.S. sees a dramatic rise in measles cases, she wouldn't commit to recommending that vaccine. I'm supportive of vaccination. I do believe that each patient, mother, parent, needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they're putting in their body and their children's bodies. If you're a nation's doctor, would you encourage her to have her child vaccinated? I'm not an individual's doctor, and every individual needs to talk to their doctor before putting a medication in their body. Democratic Senator Patty Murray pressed means about her past comments on birth control. You said Americans, quote, use birth control pills like candy. You also claimed, contrary to established science, that hormonal birth control has, quote, horrifying health risks for women. Should women trust the FDA, which approved all 18 methods of birth control? If there is not informed consent about their medical history, their lifestyle exposures, and their family history. I want those women, and I know you do too, to be able to have a thorough conversation with their doctor and know whether they are at higher risk for side effects when prescribed the medication. Saying that is one thing, but saying on, you know, different shows that birth control pills are a disrespect of life is very different. Leader, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine doubled back on vaccines. Do you believe that there's no evidence that the flu vaccine has efficacy in reducing serious injury or hospitalization? This is an easy one, doctor. This is an easy one. I support the CDC's guidance on the flu vaccine. Despite being repeatedly questioned on this, Dr. Means argued that reforming the doctor-patient relationship will improve outcomes. The constraints on doctors are monumental, and many American parents are frustrated by what they feel like is lack of transparency on the issue of vaccines. Today's confirmation hearing also illustrated some strange bedfellows who agree with part of Means' agenda. I've enjoyed and appreciated some of the remarks you have made in the past. At times, Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and Dr. Means were right in sync. You would fight to ban TV ads of junk food? I think you will be frustrated by how much I will be talking about ultra-processed foods. I won't be frustrated. I would delight it. That said, all the Democrats, including Sanders, said they wouldn't support Means' nomination. But with Republican control of the Senate, her nomination will likely succeed. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm William Brangham. Good evening. This is the first-color picture from Mars. We're all going to be preoccupied with the energy crisis. Tonight, the evidence that our climate may be changing. Gasoline shortages are spreading across the country. Tonight, a conversation... Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has become one of the most closely watched Democrats in the country. A two-term governor in a deeply red state, Beshear has won statewide office twice, even as President Trump carried Kentucky by wide margins. In recent years, he's navigated devastating tornadoes and floods, culture war battles over abortion and LGBTQ rights, and the economic pressures facing working families. Now, as Democrats search for a message that can resonate beyond blue states, and with the 2028 conversation already simmering, Bashir's approach to faith, civility, and bipartisan governance is drawing national attention. Governor Andy Bashir joins us now. Welcome to the NewsHour. Thanks for having me. So as we said, you have won twice in a deeply red state. What have you figured out that might be instructive for national Democrats? Well, for me, it's about starting with the realization that most people aren't as political as we think they are. When they're getting up in the morning, they're not thinking about the next political race. They're thinking about their job and whether they can support their family. They're thinking about the roads and bridges they drive. They're thinking about their next doctor's appointment for themselves, their parents or their kids. They're thinking about the school they drop their kids off at and whether they feel safe in their community. So what I do is I spend 80% of my time focused on those core issues that impact all the people of Kentucky and of the United States of America. I think a second thing that I try to do is talk like a normal human being. A lot of advocacy speak has crept into especially the language of the Democratic Party. It makes it sound like we're talking at people instead of to people, or sometimes like we're even talking down to them. I'll give you one painful example. You know, in Kentucky, we got hit by the opioid epidemic harder than just about anyone. We have all lost people we love and care about, but I haven't lost a single person to substance use disorder. I've lost them to addiction. Now, addiction has meaning. It's that killer that takes someone from you, or when you're in recovery, you deserve the credit of going up against that really difficult opponent that the word addiction makes people feel. But I think the last point is the most important. I don't just talk about my what, because Democrats are very good on the policy. We can tell you policy point two, sub point three, bullet point four, I, I, I underneath. But we rarely talk about why we believe what we believe. For me, that's my faith. It's that golden rule that says we love our neighbor as ourself and the parable of the Good Samaritan that says everyone is our neighbor. And so when I talk about different decisions I've had to make, different vetoes I've had to make. I respect voters enough to not just tell them the what, but also the why. Let me ask you this, because there is plenty of data to show that key industries in your state, farming and manufacturing, have faced major headwinds as a result of President Trump's economic and trade policies. And yet, voters there are still supportive of him by and large. What explains that disconnect? Well, they're waking up. They're waking up because we are succeeding in spite of Donald Trump and not because of him. Since I became governor, we've broken every record from private sector investment to new jobs. Our average incentivized wage last year was $30 an hour. We are actually making life better for our citizens, trying to expand healthcare, investing in those roads and bridges, and seeing public safety improve year after year. But what Donald Trump has done hasn't made life easier. It's made it harder. His tariff policy has added $1,600 or $1,700 of costs to our families who are already struggling with how costs nationally are rising. His big, ugly bill is going to devastate not just rural health care, but rural America. It threatens to close 35 rural hospitals in my state. So I think the American people are starting to see not just the fact that the Trump administration makes life harder, but that they go about their business with a level of cruelty that the American people just aren't going to accept. As we said, you are a two-term Democratic governor in a red state. That alone puts you on the short list for 2028. How seriously should we take this idea that you might run? Well, I've got a lot of work to do this year first. I've got to keep Kentucky on our winning streak. I'm also head of the Democratic Governors Association. So before I can look at a race in 28, I have 36 races in 2026. And we are going to win in places that people aren't expecting. It's important to do that because when Democratic governors win, we do what Republicans don't. We govern well. We make sure that we're focused on our people and their everyday lives. And we improve the lives for the people in our state. But if folks out there, especially on the Democratic side, want a map in 2028 that's not just five states with zero margin of error, yes, it helps to flip a House seat in Des Moines. But flipping the governor's office in Iowa is how we change that map. Governor as you well know there a real hunger right now in parts of your party for a fighter someone who meets confrontation with confrontation You often described as measured even too nice How do you respond to the Democrats who worry that your approach might not be the right one for the moment? I wouldn't mistake kindness for weakness. I've gone up against a Republican incumbent governor in Kentucky who was Donald Trump before Donald Trump, and I'm the one still standing. I went up against the rising star of the RNC that had the backing of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. I just do it in a different way. I was always taught that if someone's yelling and you yell back at them, then no one can hear anything. And I believe that by 2028, Democrats, Republicans, and independents are going to want anything but someone like Donald Trump. And so a democratic version of that doesn't heal the country. It doesn't bring us back together. I think people are going to want stability. They're going to want their kids. And I want my kids to have a United States that's stable, that we didn't have to worry about its future existence on a daily basis. I think that's what all of our families crave, and it's what they deserve. I want to come back to this issue of faith, because you announced a book coming out in the fall, and it's described as an insightful book that reclaims faith as a force for good in public life and rebukes those who use it to harm and discriminate. That's what's on the publisher's website. When so many white evangelicals have already fused their faith with a particular movement, the MAGA movement, Donald Trump. They backed Trump widely in the last three elections. Is your book trying to persuade them or is it speaking to a different constituency altogether? The book is speaking to anyone, whether you're a person of faith or not, regardless of what your faith is. It's about the fact that faith calls us to help people and not harm people. You know, one of the inspirations for for the book for me was I remember being in church on Sunday and my pastor said, you know, when your faith has been hijacked, when suddenly your God hates all the same people that you do. And so in writing the book, you know, go and do likewise the title. Those are the last words of the parable, the good Samaritan. It's not just a story. It's an instruction that we're supposed to lift people up and not kick them while they're down. And what you're going to see in the book is I'm going to call out when we have leaders that are making decisions that harm people, especially when they are against the example set by Jesus. I think about Donald Trump's cuts to SNAP. About 100,000 people are going to lose their SNAP benefits in Kentucky. And the fact that he became the first president in history to not fund SNAP during a government shutdown. Well, the miracle of the fishes and the loaves, which is all about people having enough to eat is in the first four books of the gospel, the first four. That means it's pretty darn important if you call yourself a Christian. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, thanks again for your time this evening. We appreciate it. Thank you. President Donald Trump's defense of his immigration agenda during last night's State of the Union address came as public support is falling. In an NBC News poll released earlier this month, 49 percent of people said they strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled border security and immigration. That's a 15-point jump since last April. Joining me now is the National Border Patrol Council president. That's Paul Perez. He's representing nearly 18,000 Border Patrol agents, and he attended the address last night as a guest of Texas Senator John Cornyn. Paul, welcome to the NewsHour. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. So the president also mentioned last night we're in the midst of this ongoing partial government shutdown, Democrats blocking DHS funding as they push for changes in enforcement tactics. Has your agency been impacted by that shutdown at all? Yeah, our agency is the only one that's impacted. You know, this is a they call it a partial government shutdown. But in fact, it's only DHS that's not receiving the funding that we need. That impacts everything from border security to, you know, FEMA operations. And so it is going to impact the United States in one way or another. So specifically, have you had to make changes in terms of how you're deploying people or what you're able to do right now? So the good thing about the one big beautiful bill is it allows us to have certain funding for specific matters. But, you know, our civilian personnel, most of those people aren't going to get paid during the shutdown. You know, the money that we have for FEMA operations, you know, hopefully there's no major disasters because that's where there will be severe impacts. But, you know, people like TSA, anybody that's traveling, there's going to be impacts there. So we know the Democrats are asking for some changes in enforcement tactics. Asking federal agents to stop wearing masks is one of them. Do your agents wear masks in the field? And has that changed something you'd support? They absolutely do wear masks, and there's a reason for that. You know, they have targeted our law enforcement officers, you know, the Democrats have targeted our law enforcement officers by asking them to take off their mask. But the reason that they're wearing masks is because our agents and officers are getting doxed. They're being identified. Their pictures are being put on the Internet. They're looking for their homes. They're looking for their families. They go after them. So it's about protecting ourselves, protecting our agents, protecting our families, more importantly. But, yeah, there's a reason. You know, they politicized this by coming after our agents. You know, they demonized and vilified our agents, calling us everything from Nazis, jackbooted thugs, without failing to realize that the Border Patrol is more than 50 percent Hispanic. You know, among the many things Democrats are asking for are also a higher bar for warrants, judicial warrants instead of administrative warrants when you're searching private properties. I hear you saying you don't want to give on the masks. Are there concessions you think that could be made here to change enforcement tactics on the ground? That would be very difficult. That would essentially shut down operations. That would not allow us to target the people that we're going after. How would it shut down operations? We'd have to go to a federal judge. We'd have to request a judicial warrant when we've already got an administrative warrant for this person's arrest. This is somebody that's already been through the system, they've already had the due process, and they've been ordered deported, either in absentia or they've been going to their hearings and have been ordered to be deported and have not left. So if we were to have to get judicial warrants, that would mean we have to go to the federal judge and have the federal judge sign on to that. For every single person that we've got, which is almost a million people that we've got warrants for, WARRANT FOR. WE WOULD HAVE TO ESSENTIALLY STOP AND GO DO THAT FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON. THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY WE COULD CONTINUE. AND I THINK THE DEMOCRATS KNOW THAT IT WOULD STOP IT. IT WOULD BRING IT TO A GRINDING HALT BECAUSE NUMBER ONE, IT'S GOING TO BE UP TO THE JUDGES TO DECIDE WHETHER THEY GIVE THAT JUDICIAL WARRANT. AND ONCE IT'S IN THEIR PIPELINE, IT STAYS THERE UNTIL THEY MAKE A DECISION. SO IF YOU LOOK AT HOW MANY PEOPLE WE'VE GOT AND HOW MANY TIMES WE'D HAVE TO GO SEEK A JUDICIAL WARRANT, WE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO APPREHEND OR arrest anybody that we're doing target enforcement operations for. Paul, big picture here. The Democrats say they want accountability. And they're asking for this after, as you well know, we've had American citizens who've been shot and killed by federal agents, including a Border Patrol agent in one case. And you're also talking at a time that the majority of Americans feel like the immigration enforcement actions have gone too far. This was related to ICE, but some six in 10 Americans say it's gone too far. Why do you think that is? Why do the American public see that way right now? Well, I think a lot of it is the media is misleading the public into how things are going. If you look at all these incidents, if you look at these operations, these are targeted enforcement operations that these arrest teams are going and executing. It's American citizens, it's people from the public that are going out there, they're interfering, they're impeding, and they're getting in the way of our law enforcement officers without local law enforcement help. And so what that... Well, if I may, American citizens were shot and killed exercising their first amendment rights. That's not the media misleading people. That's happened. But what you don't see, you don't see the full picture. You don't see the actual interference, the impeding, and what's happening with these American citizens that have been killed in both instances that we're referring to, one by an ICE officer and one by a Border Patrol agent, you know, they interfered. You know, the woman in the car, you know, she refused to follow orders. The gentleman in the... You mean Renee Goode. Yes, Renee Goode and Mr. Pretty. Her partner disputes that, I should say, that she refused to follow, but please. I mean, but there's video to that. And, you know, again, the investigations are ongoing. These agents and officers have utilized their training. In the specific instance with Preddie, that was a target in enforcement in which the subject they were going after got away because of the interference and the impeding. And so, yes, I get it. People have lost their lives. But the way the media spins everything, the way they attack our law enforcement officers, they make it seem as if we're out there doing things that are illegal. We're kidnapping American citizens. We're taking people off the streets. That's not what's happening. And because of that, it leads to the rhetoric. It leads to the interfering. It leads to these people coming out there thinking and believing that we're doing these bad things and causing them to interfere and interject themselves into lawful law enforcement actions. And that's dangerous for everybody. We've asked, you know, Tom Holman specifically asked for a couple of things, which was to allow us to go into the jails, into the prisons, and take these people into custody there so that there doesn't need to be a protection, a group of agents protecting the arrest teams. If we could do that, if those things were happening from the get-go, if local law enforcement officers were allowed to work with us and not actually become federal immigration agents but protect our arrest teams, these things wouldn't have happened. Do you think the incidents in which federal agents have fired pepper spray into cars or broken windows and dragged people from their cars or shot and injured, if not shot and killed other people, has that contributed to this sentiment that people feel the tactics have gone too far? I think people look at that. You know, they see it's a one sided story. You know, there's also the story. How is that one sided? Well, because, again, we're only seeing the videos of the aftermath. We're only seeing the video of where they're removing somebody forcibly from the vehicle. What we're not seeing is what led to that action. So if somebody's interfering, if they're impeding and they don't follow orders to remove themselves from the situation, if they've made a decision that they're going to arrest somebody, then they're going to arrest that person. And then they have to comply. If they fail to comply, then our agents and officers are trained to remove people from vehicles, you know, people that are noncompliant. What you don't see is that they've actually restrained, they've used a lot of restraint. You know, we're not using tasers, we're not using our ass batons. We're trying to use the minimum amount of force necessary to affect that arrest. And oftentimes these people, they fight back, they physically assault our agents and officers. And so they do have to use force. That's what everybody's seeing. They're not seeing the lead up to that. I would assume in the interest of more transparency, you'd support body camera usage then across the agents? Our agents have had body cameras for a couple of years now. Across the board? That was something I believe the Secretary of Dome just said recently. We've got a few people that do not have body-worn cameras, but a good majority of our agents have had body cameras for a couple of years. We haven't outfitted every single agent because it went by sector. They were looking at where they needed them, where there was a lot more apprehensions. And so that's how we were able to allocate those body cameras. But not everybody has them. But everybody that's been on these deployments has used body-worn cameras. Well, I do want to ask you about those deployments, because I should also say I've spent a lot of time with your agents on the U.S. southern border. I have watched them handle large groups of people coming across the border, taking care of children when they're coming unaccompanied or when their parents are not there to take care of them. they are now being deployed to interior cities, which is a very different environment, to Chicago and Minneapolis and having to deal with urban environments and protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights. Are they being put in a situation that's unfamiliar to them without the right training and tools? Do you worry about that? I believe the training and tools have always been there. We have that type of training. You know, there have been instances where people have tried to ram through the ports of entry and our agents have been out there to support our CBP officers and they've got that training. They've got riot control training. Now, is it something that they do every day? Absolutely not. I don't think any law enforcement agency does that every day unless you're in large cities like Los Angeles, D.C. or New York City. But yes, our agents and officers have that training. As far as what they're doing on the interior, that's over. They're back to the border. We've got almost all of our agents back to the border. We've got the most secure border that we've ever had in the history of this country. And so I think that's where they're going to stay. And we should point out those encounters at the southern border with migrants are down at 50-year lows. So there is a big change there at the border. Bottom line here, people say they believe some of these tactics are making Americans less safe. What can you do what can you say to earn back the trust of the American public Well people have to look at the facts They have to understand who we actually going after who we actually taking off the streets who we're removing, putting on these deportation flights, or we're locking them up in the United States because they're that bad. You know, there are some people that we've apprehended that have spent time in state or federal prison that we're not going to just deport to another country because they're going to do time here in the United States. And so that's what they've got to look at, the facts of who we're actually removing from the streets, making America safe again. If I may, to that point, the data shows some 74% of people who are currently detained have no criminal record. So how does that jive with the message of making America safer? So again, our targeted enforcement, we're going after the worst of the worst. Now, what people- 74% of people, though, have no criminal record. What people don't see is that a lot of the people that we're apprehending in conjunction with those arrests are people that are there. So we're not going to turn a blind eye to anybody that's illegal. So if you're illegal while we're doing a targeted enforcement, whether it's a vehicle stop, whether it's a house where we go and take somebody into custody, if everybody there is illegal, they're going to be taken into custody. And that's where a lot of those people that you refer to that are not that don't have criminal histories. That's where they're getting arrested as well. You would agree that that's different than the worst of the worst you're targeting, though. Seventy four percent of people were not considered the worst of the worst in your mind. The worst of the worst are the people that we're targeting. These are the criminals. These are the rapists, the murderers, those people that have warrants of arrest, not only in our country, but other countries. Those are the people that we're targeting. And again, other people that happen to be taken into custody, those count towards the arrest numbers. But the worst of the worst are the ones we're going after with targeted enforcement. It's the National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez joining us here today. Paul, thank you for your time. We really appreciate you being here. Yeah, I appreciate it. With a 250th birthday in sight, the Crossroads team is examining what it means to be an American and reflect on what the founders built, who they left out, and what in that 250-year history has been left unresolved. Judy Woodruff traveled to Vermont, a state with the motto, freedom and unity, to try to get answers to these questions for her series, America at a Crossroads. Dishes clatter, booths are cramped, and orders fly out of the kitchen. It's lunchtime at the Country Girl Diner in Chester, Vermont, where the service is brisk and the answers to my questions are thoughtful. What does it mean to people to be an American? SCOTT MCDONALD, President, Seeing my country essentially split in half is very, very painful. JUDY WOODRUFF For customer Scott McDonald, the country's bitter political divide is front of mind. SCOTT MCDONALD, There was a time when you could just quietly disagree with somebody, and that seems to be gone. JUDY WOODRUFF. JUDY WOODRUFF. Teacher Wendy Hayward told me understanding our past starts with how it's presented. The way we have taught history in this country has been an avoidance of what our history is. The ideas here point to a deeper question. What kind of a country did the founders build? And whom did they leave out? What really happened with slavery? What really happened with minorities? Women. I wanted to be able to go back to the founding. I met Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Joseph Ellis at the Echo Lake Inn in nearby Ludlow, Vermont, built shortly after the American Revolution. This is G.W. to Joseph Reed, December 12, 1778. He spent much of his life reading primary documents written by Washington, Jefferson and other founding fathers. You've got to have one idea for one page. taking meticulous notes for his books, all written by hand. We must acknowledge that all of these people were human beings. They weren't gods. In his latest book, The Great Contradiction, The Tragic Side of the American Founding, Ellis acknowledges the founders were trying to do something that had never been done before. It reversed the tectonic plates of Western political thought. Power did not flow downward from God to kings, but upward from that mysterious crew called the people to their elected representatives. But he says a fatal flaw was in how majority will was designed and who was included or excluded from participation. Ellis adds when it came to race, the majority of colonialists drew a line. Do you want to end slavery? They'll say, yes. Then, do you want a biracial society? No. All whites, all of them, in the North and the South, say the same thing. By 1776, one in five people in the American colonies were enslaved, and Native nations controlled most of the land west of the Appalachians. Yet, neither group was included in the Constitution and its promise of we the people. Even those that are very much in favor of ending slavery are not in favor of granting them equal treatment at all. The failure to end slavery means, in the end, the civil war is inevitable. That war that began nearly eight decades after the country's founding left over 600,000 Americans dead and left us as a nation grappling with the same moral question for generations to come. From President John F. Kennedy. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. JUDY WOODRUFF to President George W. Bush. GEORGE W. Bush, President, President of the United States, that slavery is a blight on our history, and that racism, despite all the progress, still exists today. JUDY WOODRUFF and President Barack Obama. GEORGE W. Bush, President of the United States, race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. JUDY WOODRUFF And it continues today, as the Trump administration tries to reshape how race is taught and remembered. Debates over policing, voting rights and federal power also continue today, including in Minnesota, where federal actions and protests have raised new questions about whom the law protects. Ella says the founders postponed a decision on slavery because they feared it would destroy any chance of a new nation before it even came into being. If they raise the issue during the war, the South will secede and will lose the war. And if we raise it during the Constitutional Convention, it will never pass. Ellis contends the second major failure was the exclusion of Native Americans, who were not citizens, had no vote, and were not considered in the treaty that formally declared the United States a nation at the end of the Revolutionary War. They basically confiscated all their property, claiming they lost the war or something. They didn't lose the war. One of the things that propels me towards a more positive view of Washington is that Washington is president. He's very busy, and his secretary of war comes to him and says, unless we do something, we're on a path that the only Native Americans east of the Mississippi will be in history books. Your whole future as a distinguished American president will depend upon you getting this right. Yet, over the next century, the United States signed more than 370 treaties with tribal nations and broke nearly every one of them. Ella said George Washington in particular was aware the failures in the founding documents would haunt him. If you want to understand this chapter in American history, the greatest generation of political leaders in American history did unbelievably large things that we're celebrating right now, and they failed. And guess what? Of all of them, Washington knew it the most. He understood the contradiction. He understood the contradiction. And he knew that if his reputation was linked to slavery, it would do him enormous damage. He also stresses the founding documents aren't written in stone. The Constitution itself isn't a set of truths. It's a framework in which we continue to argue about what the truths are. We've lost that capacity, it seems to me, to argue with each other in a strenuous but, you know, friendly way. And ever the college professor, Ellis gave each of us an assignment. Read the Declaration. It's only two pages long. You can pull it up on your cell phone, OK? The second is read a book called Common Sense. Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine. It's the single most influential book in shaping the way in which American history goes. You don't change history. History is what it is. Back at the country girl diner, the weight of that history is still in the air. We have to learn from her. We have to live it. And if we want to change, we have that ability. Including the ugly, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Good, the bad, and the ugly. We've had parts of our history that are shameful, of course, and every country has. It's what we do about it now that matters. For Joe Ellis, the historian, the nation's future is what he's most concerned about. This is the most important midterm election in American history. The republic is on the ballot. I can understand which side of the coin you're on, but I cannot understand if you're indifferent. Whatever position you end up concluding is yours, act on it. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Judy Woodruff in Ludlow, Vermont. Julian Shapiro Barnum is the creator and host of Recess Therapy, an online series where he talks with kids about everything from friendship to the meaning of life. In tonight's Brief But Spectacular, he shares what adults can learn from the clarity and compassion of children. The idea behind recess therapy was how can I, a young adult who needs help figuring out how to navigate the world, get advice from kids who are able to kind of see through all the BS. What do you want to say to all the adults who think that kids are grimy and gross? I'm not thinking now. Was that for energy or for syncing audio? Oh, you use it? There were a couple moments where I think recess therapy kind of hit the mainstream in a bigger way. One was the corn kid video moment. It was one of the most viral videos that TikTok has ever seen. I can't imagine a more beautiful thing. I feel like I've spent a lot of my life trying to figure out the best way to have a conversation. There are so many things that kids do that I wish adults were better at doing. One is turning strangers into friends. I wish I could bottle that up and make other adults bring that out of each other. I had kind of an unconventional upbringing. I was raised by three moms and two dads. Everyone's gay. I had two moms who were together. They wanted to have a baby. They asked their best friend at the time, my dad, whose boyfriend is my other dad. And my dad was the sperm donor to both my moms. My moms broke up when I was two after having me and my brother and sister raised us all a couple blocks from each other in Brooklyn. The adults in my life were often more friends, and I feel like from a very young age I was having these really mature discussions about life with adults, and it's something that I've tried to take into my interviews with kids, because I remember being five years old and having all these adults ask me such interesting things and asking for my opinion about things, and now whenever I meet kids I do a lot more asking than telling. My name is Julian Shapiro Barnum, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on recess therapy. As always, you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at pbs.org slash newshour slash brief. And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the News Hour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.