April 3, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett is away on the NewsHour tonight. A U.S. fighter jet has shot down over Iran for the first time in five weeks of war, as attacks on military and civilian infrastructure mount across the region. Young conservatives at a turning point USA college event share their views on the war in Iran. And Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank, including American citizens, face rising attacks from Israeli settlers. They want to take the land. They started to expand towards the town until they became very close to the houses. And by the end, they have reached the boundaries of our houses, and you just can't do anything. Welcome to the NewsHour. For the first time in five weeks of war with Iran, two American combat aircraft went down in separate incidents. One of two service members on board an F-15E that was shot down was rescued. But a military official tells the NewsHour the whereabouts and status of the second crew member is either unknown or hasn't been disclosed. During a harrowing rescue mission today for the fighter jet, a Blackhawk helicopter was also shot at but was able to return to base. And the pilot of an A-10 Warthog was reportedly rescued after being shot down as it was leaving Iran's airspace. Stephanie Sy has our report. Flying low over southern Iran this morning, American aircraft on an urgent and risky search and rescue operation for U.S. aviators shot down in their fighter jet. Iranian state broadcasters televised a U.S. military transport aircraft with two helicopters following closely behind, scouring treacherous mountain terrain. The rescue mission marks the first time since the start of the war that U.S. troops were known to be inside Iran. A U.S. official confirms the downed jet is an F-15. It's the first aircraft lost in Iran since the war began. Israel halted airstrikes during the American rescue in which one crew member was recovered alive. The fate of the second service member is unclear. Iranian officials said the jet was brought down south of Tehran toward the Persian Gulf. Iranian state media announced a bounty for the capture of the crew. Residents, dear and honorable people, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize. Video from the Revolutionary Guard allegedly showed tribesmen in Kuzestan province on the hunt. The state-affiliated broadcast showed photos of the wreckage. The half-destroyed logo on what appears to be a stabilizer fin intact would have read U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Another photo being circulated seems to show one of the crew members ejector seats. A second U.S. aircraft, an A-10 Warthog similar to this one, also reportedly crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran claiming to have shot it down. The Americans were shot down a day after President Trump touted the bombing of Iran's largest bridge. Iran says the collapse killed at least eight people and injured nearly 100 Iranians. Many gathered for outdoor celebrations on the last day of the Persian New Year. A U.S. official told PBS News that the bridge was a planned military supply route for Iran's missiles and drones. But Iranian officials said it was used only by civilians. There was absolutely no military use or transportation of military equipment here, and there is no military base in the vicinity. This attack shows the ultimate savagery and hostility of the enemy. And Trump warned on social media of more attacks to come, stating, our military hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran, bridges, then electric power plants. Trump's recent threats to target civilian infrastructure have raised alarms among war crimes experts. Iran today bombarded Israel and its Gulf neighbors with missiles and drones, and continued its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Though today, a French container ship became the first Western European vessel known to have passed through the channel in recent weeks. The ship's successful transit occurred while French President Emmanuel Macron held meetings in South Korea on jointly ensuring the safety of the Strait. We addressed the crisis in the Middle East, the conditions for a de-escalation process, and the conditions in a clearly established international framework of a de-confliction being negotiated with Iran and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Meantime, the news hour confirmed that during the search and rescue mission earlier today, at least one of the military helicopters took fire. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Stephanie Sy. For insight on what it takes to conduct a search and rescue operation for a downed combat aircrew, we turn to retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant. He spent his career in Air Force Special Operations and participated in these kinds of missions. Welcome back to the NewsHour, Wes. Can you just tell us, based on what we know at this hour, walk us through what would be happening right now in a search and rescue mission? What are they trying to do to locate and rescue this second crew member? Well, it's twofold here. Obviously, it's prioritizing all assets available. That's not just all air assets, but all intelligence assets. And anything we have potentially on the ground, Iranian sources, for example, people that are pro-U.S. causes here, to locate this downed F-15 aircrew member. And then, secondarily, it's ensuring that we have protection of air assets that are going to push into Iran. I mean, what we've seen here is clearly the collapse of what we call air superiority. The Trump administration, Hexeth himself, military leadership, has almost kind of in a propaganda-like manner, not almost, but in a propaganda-like manner, told the world and the American people how much we've won in Iran. We've established dominance. We've established air superiority. There's no air defenses. There's no air force. That's never the case in any combat environment. And as we can see here, Iran still has sophisticated air defense capabilities. They have to be sophisticated in order to bring down something like an F-15. So that's twofold. That's securing the pilot's location on the ground and then ensuring that the assets that are going to be sent in to get that aircrew member will be safe when they get sent in. And that's a difficult task at this point, because things are as we've been told. Well, let me ask you if I may about the specifics in this case with this war in Iran, because there are examples of rescue missions for U.S. service members behind enemy lines in other nations, right? Afghanistan more recently, earlier than that, Vietnam. Korea, of course, everyone remembers the infamous Black Hawk Down mission in Somalia in the early 90s. What are the challenges here that are different from those previous episodes? Well, we have really no ground forces to speak of, no partner force of any substantial nature that can push in and what we say, cordon and secure an area. In many of those cases, we had at least some kind of aligned partner forces that could help in these situations. And then, of course, there's this shock factor for the U.S. military, frankly, where we don't have the superiority from an air platform standpoint that we apparently believed we did. So now getting forces in, getting those ground components in, which are going to be a lot more at risk in low-flying helicopters, those can be shot down with rocket-propelled grenades, for example, even rifles at times. So you don't need sophisticated air defense assets to shoot these troop carriers down. So getting those forces in is going to be far more risk, far more difficult to plan here. You see the Iranians, of course, offering a reward for the capture of this U.S. airman. If that ends up happening, if the service member ends up in the custody of Iranians or in the Iranian regime, what would that change? What does that mean for the landscape moving forward? Well, you know, the Trump administration here, Hegzath himself, really our senior military leadership, have presented it really an utter failure to foresee the implications of this war. In the war, they have not foreseen the impact of regional partners here, the global instability, the regional instability, the energy crisis itself. That's one problem of many. And then, most importantly, the incredible risk, the undue risk to U.S. forces here. And so, you know, I would hope that Iran wants to keep this air crew member safe, forsake of, you know, ethics and morality and adhering to Geneva conventions. My guess would be that they want the leverage and that will be incredible leverage because, you know, the U.S. for better or for worse, we have a very low tolerance for U.S. casualties and especially for U.S. prisoners of war in the hands of a regime like the Iranian regime. That's going to be a whole lot of leverage against the Trump administration, unfortunately. And the most important part here is that we get, you know, our airmen back safe and sound. In the minute or so I have left, you mentioned how this is a bit of a revelation in terms of what it shows us about Iran's existing capabilities. They were able to shoot down an F-15. It looks like also that A-10 warthog, they shot at a Black Hawk helicopter that was able to return safely to base. Does all of this and could all of this change the U.S. war effort moving forward? How operations are planned and carried out? You know, I certainly hope so. It absolutely should. There should be a pause to operations, you know, typically with downed aircraft, downed crew members. There will be a pause, sometimes theater-wide. And all assets, all priorities are put to that recovery effort. But there should also be a pause and a reassessment of, you know, what we call risk to the force, to U.S. forces versus risk to the mission. You know, continue, we've, the U.S. has bombed so many targets in the last few weeks. You know, making the decision to just continue forward and continue a strike campaign with a risk that we haven't properly assessed yet to our, to our enforces would be, frankly, just incredibly irresponsible at this point. So I hope there is a halt and a reassessment strategically and operationally here. That is retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant joining us tonight. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. In the day's other headlines, President Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion in defense spending for the upcoming financial year. That's according to details released by the White House today. The request is more than 40 percent more than last year's spending and is the largest of its kind in decades. The plan also includes continued funding for Trump's immigration crackdown, plus money to hire air traffic controllers and billions of dollars for beautification projects in Washington, D.C. The plan would also cut funding for things like renewable energy projects, housing and health programs. The budget now goes to Congress for consideration, but on its own, it offers a blueprint for the president's priorities moving forward. March was a surprisingly strong month for the U.S. jobs market, even as soaring energy prices from the war in Iran had many Americans on edge. The Labor Department said today that employers added 178,000 new jobs last month. That's about triple what many economists had expected and comes after a loss of 133,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate also dipped slightly to 4.3 percent, though uncertainty about the longer-term impacts of the war is casting a shadow over the broader jobs outlook. Ukrainian officials say that massive Russian airstrikes today killed at least eight people in what President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced as an Easter escalation. Outside of Kyiv, a Russian drone set an apartment block on fire. While in northwestern Ukraine, local authorities say another attack damaged several buildings and killed at least one. Ukrainian officials claim that Russia's recent use of daytime attacks is meant to increase the risk to civilians. For its part, Russia's Defense Ministry says that at least 192 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, though no damage was reported. In Cuba, the first of more than 2,000 prisoners were released today after the government issued a sweeping amnesty amid ongoing tensions with the Trump administration. A steady stream of men and women could be seen leaving a prison outside Havana today as the results of what state TV described as a, quote, humanitarian and sovereign gesture by officials. Few details were provided about the identities of the released or what crimes they are accused of committing. For those walking free, it was a day to celebrate. We received the news this morning. They called their names from a list. I am happy and overjoyed to be able to share this news with my mother. I'm thankful for this gesture as it gives the opportunity to rebuild my life and rejoin society. The release comes as the country grapples with an ongoing economic crisis made worse by the Trump administration's limited oil blockade. The arrival this week of a shipment of Russian oil allowed by the U.S. is providing some relief, and Moscow says another tanker is being sent soon. The Artemis-2 astronauts are zooming closer to the moon, and their view along the way is something to behold. NASA released the first images of Earth taken by the crew. In this one, our blue planet peeks through one of the capsule windows, and in another, the globe in all its glory. NASA said the northern lights were visible, and that white glow is the sun being eclipsed by the Earth. You can see the entire globe from pole to pole. Last night, mission commander Reed Wiseman said the site stopped the four-member crew in their tracks. They should fly by the moon by Monday. Back on Earth, NASA officials said the mission is going well and called it an important stepping stone for future moon flights. We're going back to the moon. We're going to stay there. And so this is the first step towards that. We'll obviously build upon that. We'll get eyes on the moon, kind of map it out, and then continue to go back in force. Those lunar aspirations come despite plans by the White House to trim NASA's budget. Officials are proposing a $5.6 billion cut next year that's 23 percent below this year's spending. Wall Street was closed today for Good Friday after a rough few weeks for stocks due to the Iran War. Trading will resume on Monday. In the meantime, in Rome today, Pope Leo marked Good Friday by carrying a cross through all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Coliseum. He is the first pope to do so in decades. For Christians, Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Christians are held around the world like this procession and reenactment in Germany. In Kenya, thousands turned out for a similar event on the streets of Nairobi. While in New York, parishioners carried a cross over the Brooklyn Bridge as part of commemorations there. Still to come on the NewsHour, Palestinians and the occupied West Bank face rising violence from Israeli settlers. David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines. And some candy makers quietly change recipes as climate change hits the cocoa industry. This is the PBS NewsHour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. The U.S. and Israeli War with Iran has caused a rare rift among conservatives, with several influential figures on the right condemning the war in its early days. A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that while most Republicans do support the war, young Republicans appear to be an outlier. Only 49 percent of those under the age of 30 say they approve of the way the president Trump has handled the conflict. Turning Point, USA, the organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, has been key in organizing young conservatives, especially at their signature campus rallies. Our White House correspondent Liz Landers spoke to some of them at one such event right here in Washington last night. So Liz, tell us about the event, who you talked to and what they had to say. This was at George Washington University's campus, which is right here in the heart of Washington. This event was a conversation between Erica Kirk and White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt there. TPUSA has become a particularly powerful organizing tool for conservatives and the Republican Party. More than 3,500 university campus chapters and more than 300 staffers. So we asked attendees who were in line waiting for the event what they thought about one month into this conflict, this war with Iran. As you might expect, several had the president's back. I would say I confidently trust the president to handle his agenda and to handle any foreign policy affairs. But others expressed opposition or even uncertainty. We don't want them to have immense power that's going to hurt other people, but the way that it went about may not have been the right way of doing it. So I was very conflicted on, like, I guess, the means of participation that we've taken part in. I aspire to join the Marines myself, and I think it's very good to serve your country. But I don't see this war as serving America's interests, not certainly not economic interests, political interests, social interests. We need to focus more on the United States first. I think there's a lot of problems that could be solved in the United States before going into foreign conflict. To be honest, I think this was more Israel's fight than the United States. And that last student there, Nassim, he's Iranian-American. So he said that this is a complex issue for him. He has complicated feelings about it. But he said that he thought it was good that the Ayatollah was killed, and he said that his family also felt like they had, you know, there was no tears as he put it, that the Ayatollah had been killed at the beginning of this conflict. But as you heard him say there, he also wants the focus to be back on domestic issues in the U.S. I asked him if this conflict, this war, was going to impact his vote come November. He said probably not, that it's other issues that are going to more personally impact him that he's focused on. That's interesting. With this being right there in the heart of the GW campus, and you spoke to other students who weren't there for the event, but who also said that they opposed the war, what did you hear from them? We walked by two young women who were milling about walking around on campus in between classes, and they said that they were both unhappy that TPUSA was there, and also were in opposition to this conflict with Iran. Take a listen to what Gabby told us. We're committing war crimes, and it's being used, our dollars that we don't have. We're both full Pell Grant students who are here completely on financial aid. She doesn't have any right now. Mine is being cut. I'm deeply ashamed right now to be an American. Gabby said that she watched President Trump's speech on Wednesday night. And she said that she was particularly offended by the phrase that he used that he was going to bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages. She said that she thought that that was appalling. Well, as you know, US viewpoints on the Middle East have changed a lot over the years. Polls have shown young Democrats are increasingly less sympathetic towards Israel, but they're also starting to show a similar trend among young Republicans. What have you found out about that when you talk to experts? We spoke with Shibalee Telhami. He's a professor at the University of Maryland, and he also has been tracking and polling these issues with young voters for years now. He points to the war in Gaza in 2023 as a real important time stamp for when these shifting views on Israel started to come to more of the forefront, especially with Democrats and also these young Republicans. Listen to what he told us. We've seen the gap between younger and older Republicans became huge, particularly in terms of justifying what Israel was doing in Gaza. And that has increased of late, particularly with regard to the Iran War, a large part because many of the podcasters and the commentary on the right, particularly the America First Movement, have been highlighting the link between the Israeli aim to have war with Iran and the causes for the war, the US going to war. He attributes these shifts and attitudes for young Republicans in particular to two different things. He says, first of all, it's about the anger of the United States supporting Israel in that Gaza conflict starting several years back, that started during the Biden years, honestly. Secondly, he says that the America First platform, and you heard him talk a little bit about that at the end there, that Trump ran on promoting domestic issues here in the United States and no more foreign war intervention. And that was something that we heard from young people across the political spectrum. Yesterday, that they believed that Trump had broken that promise, that he would not get the United States involved in any more foreign wars. Such an interesting look at how young voters are looking at this war. White House correspondent Liz Landers, thank you. Thanks. This week, Palestinians protested a new Israeli law that expands the death penalty for killing as acts of terrorism. Human rights groups say the law is expected to apply exclusively to Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank. The UN and international groups report that, as Israel and the US are waging war in Iran, there's also been a surge of violence in the West Bank, mostly by Israeli settlers against Palestinians there. Nick Schifrin recently visited Muqmas in the occupied West Bank to understand the nature of that violence and its impact on Palestinian families. In the hills outside of Jerusalem, a father and uncle walk a painful path. This is the first time that Mohamed Abu Siam has visited his own son's grave. Nasrallah Abu Siam was 19 years old when he was killed six weeks ago. Nasrallah helped build his own grave. It was supposed to be for his grandfather. Nasrallah told him, I wish my day before your day, my grandfather. And then, to the road, he said it too early, man. Khaled Abu Siam is Nasrallah's uncle and is American, like his nephew. And we all wish, all wish, to use the same grave, Nasrallah. We're proud of you. We're proud of what you ever did. For all his life, Nasrallah Abu Siam was an avid horse riger and teacher of his little cousins, encouraging them not to be afraid. He led processions at local weddings. That's him in the gray suit on his horse. His horse's name is Shams, Arabic for son, as in the sun that shines. Today, the horse is still waiting for Mohamed's son. He said, Shams will stay with me for my whole life, and she remained. She still remains without her rider. This small town is more than 80 percent American. But they say Israel's wars in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon have made them as vulnerable as any Palestinians. Our people's story, you know, every day in a different town, they just don't care. Anwar Mustafa is 57 and also American. He and Nasrallah's other friends visit his grave to support a Palestinian community and family that feels under siege. Every time they try to kick us out of the art town, they came to kill that day. They came to kill. On February 18, residents say these Jewish settlers arrived on the high ground, some of them armed. They stole the Palestinians' livestock, which provides their lively hoods. And down the hill, Palestinians tried to hold their ground, some throwing stones. And suddenly, one of the Palestinians was shot. Nasrallah tried to help. That's in his blood to help people. So he couldn't not to get involved. And him and a couple of guys trying to help this guy on the floor, they tried just to take him away, just to save him. And all of them get shot. In the Abu Siam family home, there is great grief. They believe Nasrallah could have been saved if not for Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. He lost too much blood in the way. He was helpful until the last minute in his life. You're never going to forget. He tried to help people. Now he left us. Mokhmas' population is about 13,000. Traditionally, many residents come here from the U.S. for the summer. But they're increasingly staying here year-round to help protect the village. On the edge of town, Mohamed Abu Siam shows me the Israeli outpost where he believes his son's killers still live. The makeshift houses are illegal under Israeli and international law, but he says they have been there for five years. The first thing they did when they came is to build a house or two. The army demolished the two houses. The next day, they built three, and the army demolished the three. But in around one year, they built 30 houses. After that, the army didn't care. In a statement provided to PBS NewsHour, the Israeli Defense Forces says its mission is to safeguard the security of all residents in the area. And on the day Nasrallah was killed, life-endangering stone throwing occurred, and Israeli forces acted to disperse the disturbance without firing live ammunition. Mohamed Abu Siam says he, his father and grandfather have been shepherds on this land, or nearby land, for 90 years. In the last few years, he's taken to sleeping in this shack next to his sheep to defend them from settler attacks. They want to take the land. If you attack them or even try to talk to them, they will immediately call for police or army, and the army will come and arrest you. So they started to expand towards the town until they became very close to the houses. And by the end, they have reached the boundaries of our houses, and you just can't do anything. The UN and international human rights organizations say settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has been rising. The UN says already this year, settlers have displaced more Palestinians than in all of last year. And since the war with Iran began, settlers have averaged six attacks on Palestinians every day. The violence has spiked, especially since Hamas' terrorist attacks in Israel on October the 7th, 2023. Since then, the UN says settlers and soldiers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, nearly one-quarter of them children under 18. The violence drew a rare rebuke from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who called the attacks, quote, a shameful crime against innocence. They're talking about a handful of kids. On Fox News late last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that Palestinians attacked Israelis living in the occupied West Bank, but he also vowed to reduce settler crime. They do things like chopping the olive trees, and sometimes they try to burn a home. I can't accept that. That's vigilanteism. I'm taking that out. But they claim they put a false symmetry between these teenagers and 1,000, actually over 1,000 terrorist attacks against the settlers. I'm putting a special effort to stop this vigilanteism. I can't accept it, even if it's not parallel, even if it's not symmetrical. But critics call the violence state-sanctioned. Last month, eight-year-old Mustafa Odeh and his 12-year-old brother Khaled were the only survivors after Israeli border police fired at their family car. Both their parents and two younger brothers were killed. Last week, the Israeli parliament passed a law that expands the death penalty for killings classified as acts of terrorism that will apply almost exclusively to the Israeli military's Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank. Our right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gavir celebrated this champagne. The violence and displacement has helped separate and isolate Palestinian communities in the West Bank and insert Israeli outposts or illegal settlements on land that Palestinians hope will be their future state. And it's affected Palestinian communities across the West Bank, including its most rural areas. While Palestinians describe increased violence as Israel wages war elsewhere in villages across the West Bank, including those as small as this one, Palestinians describe decades of targeting and persecution and now violence that is unspeakable. I was 100 percent terrified. I thought, that's it. They will kill me. Suheib Abu Al-Kabash is still suffering from that terror. He says last month, 20 settlers attacked his village, his family, and himself. I was outside. They grabbed me inside the tent and started hitting me. They tied me, tied my legs and my hands with zip ties. They took my pants off and zip tied my penis and started hitting me. His family, his wife and children, tied together and made to watch. And he says the settlers showed them no mercy. Everyone was beaten, except a four-month baby girl. She was asleep, but everybody was beaten, all the children. What will they understand? What will they know about these robbers or settlers? They were scared. They're still children, just children. This kind of violence is obviously very personal. Why are you willing to talk about it to a reporter like me? To convey my voice to the world, to tell what's happening, what they are doing to people. And what they are doing isn't only about violence, it's about land. This family has lived in this area for 70 years, three generations of shepherding. The family had 400 sheep, and Abu Al-Kabash says settlers stole all of them and vowed to maintain their pressure. They said to us, if you will not leave from here, the next day we will come and burn you, rape your women, and we will take your children and make them live with us. But some parents' children have already been taken, and their land encroached. By the very people, he says killed his son. In what world does this happen? Someone kills your son and they say, hey, look at me, and he's not far from you. You see him every day. I'm not leaving him alone, even two. He's coming back and forth, back and forth, the same guy, same people. And that makes him more sad, more angry. That's killing him more. And so instead of justice, there is a hollowness that can never be filled. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Nick Schifrin in Muqmas in the Occupied West Bank. For more on the political debate over the war in Iran, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart. That's The Atlantic's David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MS Now. Great to see you both. I am not. As we sit here and speak now, as we reported at the top of the show, there's still a U.S. crew member from that downed fighter jet missing, a search and rescue operation underway. We know Iranians were also able to shoot down another aircraft over the Gulf shot at Blackhawk helicopter that returned to base safely. Iranian leaders are looking for that missing crew member on the ground. David, all of this is just two days after the president said in address to the nation that the U.S. had crippled the Iranian military and the war was nearly over. What's your reaction to all of this? There's one of the disadvantages of having a huckster for president that he does. He can't tell the American people that when you're going to war, it's horrible. Iran is a serious country that's been preparing for this for nearly half a century. They're going to fight back and they're going to make countermoves like this or like the straights and formos. To me, what happened, I've been somewhat moderately hoping there'd be some positive outcome. I think there has been some. We've had to go to the Middle East for almost every decade for the last 50 years because of radical Islam, which the Iranian regime typifies. But this is clearly the week when the costs of the war are so exponentially larger than the benefits of what we're getting in these marginal weeks. The cost to Russia is now getting all this revenue. Iran is getting all this revenue. The European economy and the world economies are in crisis. NATO is in shreds. And so the costs are just exorbitant now, not to mention the human suffering. And so if Trump doesn't see that we're losing, every day he continues this thing. He's going to just face more and more political problems, military problems, and all sorts of problems. And so he just needs to admit that what's going on, and I doubt he has the mental ability to do that. Jonathan? I mean, this is a war of choice. We didn't need to take this action now. What's funny but not funny, playing on cable right now on a loop is Top Gun Maverick. And if anyone has seen that movie, the whole plot is about a U.S. military operation deep inside Iran and two fighter pilots have to eject out of their planes. I bring that up because there was more of a plan in the fictional plot of Top Gun Maverick than there appears to be in this very real, very live situation in the United States war with Iran. Look, I applaud the president for finally addressing the American people that he is a month too late and told us nothing we had not already heard from him, from his administration, in various ways. What he should have done was told the American people, really, why we went, how we're getting out, and then spend more than half a phrase on the 13 service members who lost their lives in this war of choice, his choice. David, two Jonathan's point here, that those 19 minutes that the president addressed the nation, right, said this is why we're here, this is what we're there to do. There were some contradictory statements. There's negotiations ongoing, but we're going to bomb them back to the Stone Ages. We're winning, but there's still a lot of work to do. Did you get clarity on what the goal of this war is from that speech? I got reverse clarity. If you go back to the Trump's first book, The Art of the Deal, I don't know if it's the first book, but that early book, The Art of the Deal, he would talk about how he tries to confuse everybody through multiple different options. I say this, I try this, I do that, and it's all like a weave or a chaotic weave, as he would say. But when you're running a war, when you're asking people to risk their lives and in some cases lose their lives, you owe some clarity to the country. And you owe some clarity on the idea that this is what we're going to try to do. And if he had said, we're trying to make it impossible for Iran to be a regional power, that's a defined aim, I think it's a plausible aim. But when it shifts every day, you're not just confusing the Iranians. Can you imagine fighting in this war, and where you don't know what the president wants you to do or what the goal here is? It's a horrible position to put anybody in. Mr. Tchaikovsky, on the speech. Well, I think I've said a lot about the speech. But again, it's a month too late, quite honestly. Meanwhile, of course, all of this was delivered against the backdrop of some very tough polls for the president. You've seen these. A new CNN poll this week showed that roughly two-thirds of Americans say that the president's policies have worsened economic conditions in the United States. And then there was this video, I'm sure you saw. It was the president's remarks at a closed press event that was first posted, then later deleted from the White House YouTube account in which he talks about some of his budget priorities. Take a listen. It's not possible for us to take care of, take care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. We have to guard the country. David, we just reported today that the defense budget request from the president is 1.5 trillion, one of the largest requests in modern history. What happened to the whole affordability message? Well, I mean, guest prices went up. They can't keep a model on this. One of the things that strikes me about Trump is a basic loss of basic economic knowledge. So for example, in reference to the Iran War, he said it's not our problem because we don't use oil that goes through the straits of our modes. And literally that's true. But what he does not seem to understand is that global energy markets are global markets. We have one global economy, and it raises prices here just as it does everywhere else around the world. It's not like we're not being heard. The second thing he doesn't understand, and he's not the first president to misunderstand this, is that it's very, very hard to create manufacturing jobs. He promised to create manufacturing jobs. We've lost 100,000. Joe Biden tried to create manufacturing jobs. I think one year Joe Biden lost 200,000. This is a long-term trend. China has lost tens of millions of manufacturing jobs. As the economy moves forward, you lose manufacturing jobs. And the idea that the tariffs and the other things were going to restore manufacturing jobs without costing Americans money at the cash register, that was always a fantasy. And yet he's living in an economic model of, I don't know, 1942 or something like that. We live in a global economy, and he does not know how it works. And as a result, you get these policy failures. And, Jonathan, there is so much frustration out there, right, on the economy, on a lot of other issues. We saw a lot of that in the streets, in those massive no-kings protests that took place just a few days ago, larger attendance this time than even last time they were held. The frustration is there. Are Democrats doing enough to tap into it, to mobilize that? I would think so. I mean, I don't know for sure. They better be. Look, I think this is the fourth no-kings rally. And as you pointed out, each rally has been bigger than the one that preceded it. This last one was the largest of all of them. Put aside whether Democrats are taking advantage of all this, what we're seeing on the streets of America are people who are angry and frustrated. Most of them are probably Democrats. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Republicans, if there were some people who voted for Trump, who are not happy with the way he is conducting the economy, the war, the country. I mean, we're talking about an president who doesn't have any economic knowledge, or his economic knowledge sort of sits firmly in the 1980s. But you also have an administration that's filled with very rich people, billionaires, people who are saying one cabinet secretary said that all people needed to have was a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a tortilla, and something else. You had the commerce secretary who is a billionaire say, if my mother-in-law didn't get her Medicaid check or social security check, she wouldn't complain. She would just wait. I'm sorry. You are living in a completely different world than the rest of America. And I think the president, by saying what he said there, doesn't quite understand the people in the country that he is running. Speaking of the members of his administration, we have now seen the second cabinet member fired in a month by the president. Attorney General Pam Bondi is out after 14 months in office. There have been a few names already floated as possible replacements, including the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, U.S. Attorney in D.C., Jeanine Pirro, the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, senators like Eric Schmidt and Mike Lee. What do you make of the decision to fire her and who do you think replaces her? Our friend Ruth Marcus had a piece in the New Yorker today saying, of all the attorney generals in the history of America, she's the worst. That's a very plausible argument to be made. She gutted the agency. Any lawyer with integrity or most of them, they just can't stomach this. Her handling of the Epstein files was obviously horrendous. She was ineffective at doing the illegal things that she tried to do on behalf of Donald Trump. The difference with this and the Kristi Noem firing was that Noem- From a Homeland Security. One got the sense that Trump knew that the ICE policy had gone too far. The Bondi fire, one has the sense he believes the Justice Department and the Lawfare, the prosecuting political enemies didn't go far enough. Trump assumes that he's going to pick somebody who will go farther. And that's why I would love to see a Mike Lee, for example. He's at least, he is an intelligent man with an independent career. I doubt we're going to see something like that. I think we will see something wholly owned by Donald Trump who will do whatever he wants, which is to further politicize the department. Okay. The one person who, I'm saying it here right now, who will not be the next Attorney General of the United States is Jeanine Pirro. Why do you say that? Famously, the famous adages, you know, a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. She literally could not indict a guy who threw a sandwich, wasn't ham, I think it was salami or something. Ad a federal officer could not indict that person. So no, she shouldn't be Attorney General. My money is on Deputy Attorney General now acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. I don't know if he can actually get there because of legal things, but he is exactly who David is talking about, someone who is a wholly owned person. He was the president's personal attorney through all of those, his legal fights when he was no longer president, including the one where Donald Trump got convicted. So either Todd Blanche or a member of the Senate, because those are the only two people who I could imagine could get through Senate confirmation. Well, wasn't Todd Blanche 30 seconds we have left also went down to meet with Galeen Maxwell in prison. They want that coming up in a confirmation hearing, you think? Hey, look, Trump wants what he wants, although we don't know who he wants yet, so we'll find out. We will find out. Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, always great to see you both. Thank you. Thank you. Earlier this week, the Hershey Company announced that next year it's returning all of its classic brands back to earlier milk and dark chocolate recipes, impacting about 3 percent of its Reese's products. The move comes amid a growing backlash over recipe changes and the use of chocolate alternatives in some of its candies. Dima Zayn explores what's behind this latest battle in the chocolate wars. Kit Kats, I have literally eaten them my whole life. When I was in high school, I used to have one of those extra large Kit Kat bars, like once a week, I would just carry it around in my backpack. As a teenager, High Synth Moja had a serious sweet tooth, but these days, she's noticed a change in the chocolate she grew up loving. The main thing is that it feels really waxy. Yeah, it just wasn't the same. And it's not just Kit Kats, says Philip Denison, a former Snickers fan from Minnesota. It's kind of the big name brands here in the U.S. under like Mars and Hershey's. I grew up eating them back in the 80s and 90s as a kid, and the flavor profile has changed. Her fast, chocoholic, Julia Alvarado agrees. I love Reese's peanut butter cups, all those. And honestly, over like the last few years, I've just found myself avoiding them. It's kind of disappointing because there's that sense of nostalgia that's lost. Like, I know what this should taste like, but it doesn't anymore. Amid a course of these disappointed customers, Hershey announced it would adjust the ingredients in some of its classic brands to include more of the costly raw ingredient that makes chocolate, chocolate. The cocoa bean. Cocoa prices have swung sharply in recent years, driven by climate change and production issues in West Africa, where most cocoa is grown. Prices hit a record high at the end of 2024. And although they've fallen since, candy makers who buy months ahead are still feeling the impact. Candy industries are profit-driven, and as the cost of ingredients go up, they've got to figure out ways to either reduce costs or raise prices. Richard Hartel, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has studied chocolate for 35 years and has kept records of ingredients in popular chocolate candies for more than a decade. And he's noticed some changes. Here we have the 2015 version. Here's the 2025 version. They've actually reduced the amount of chocolate ingredient in the chocolate product. Last fall, a New York Times investigation found major chocolate brands were using less cocoa in their products, and that popular candies like Rollo's, Almond Joy and Mr. Goodbar had quietly dropped the term milk chocolate from their labels. Under FDA guidelines, candy-labeled milk chocolate must be at least 10 percent chocolate liquor, a liquid made from cocoa beans, which contains cocoa butter. When it drops below 10 percent, companies have swapped in terms like chocolate candy and chocolate tea, a subtle shift that most consumers won't notice. They're taking away some of that chocolate. What are they filling it with? The standard in the industry these days is palm kernel oil because it mimics cocoa butter's properties quite well. We've got a bunch of chocolate-sweet-or-taste. Hartel says in taste tests, high-quality compound coatings or chocolate alternatives can often trick even his savvy food science students. Most people cannot tell the difference. One article I was reading suggested that by 2050 there would be no chocolate production, no cocoa production, that all of those plantations would go away. That's kind of doomsaying, but people are looking like that, talking like that. But these tweaks to candy ingredients have sparked criticism from some unexpected corners. They're really using inferior cheap ingredients. Brad Reese has a last name chocolate lovers might know. His grandfather, H.B. Reese, created the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup nearly a century ago, and Brad's always been an unofficial and unpaid brand ambassador. My whole life, I've been very proud of the Reese's brand. My website and my LinkedIn profile were Brad Reese, growing Reese's worldwide one peanut butter cup at a time. That changed on Valentine's Day when Hershey's launched a new product. The Reese's Peanut Butter Mini Hearts. I took two bites and I hadn't spit it out. And of course, then I dumped all the contents in the garbage and I saved the wrapper and I looked at the wrapper and realized it didn't say milk chocolate. He shared his feelings in a viral LinkedIn post, writing, How does the Hershey company continue to position Reese's as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, loyalty and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients that built Reese's trust in the first place? Another Hershey company declined a request for an interview, but in a written statement to the PBS NewsHour, they said, quote, Hershey is committed to making products consumers love. And that means continually reviewing recipes to meet evolving tastes and preferences. It's a change Julia Alvarado welcomes. I just kind of wish that company is prioritized quality over quality in a lot of situations because you're going to lose the loyalty. I would have stayed loyal to her. She's honestly forever. She says she's willing to taste it again before confirming if it's too chocolate for her. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Dima Zane. There's always a lot more online, including a look at a bill that would potentially change housing affordability nationwide. That's at PBS.org slash NewsHour. Be sure to tune into Washington Week later tonight for a look at President Trump's shifting timeline for ending the Iran War. And watch Horizons this weekend. William Brangham explores the troubling rise of cancer in young adults and what's being done to counter it. Meanwhile, on Compass Point this Easter weekend, Nick Schifrin and his guests discuss Pope Leo's recent pointed criticism of President Trump and the first year of the American-born Pontiff's Papacy. You can find all of those on your local PBS station. And that is the NewsHour for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz. On behalf of our entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us. Have a great weekend.