PBS NewsHour live episode, March 1, 2024 - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Thousands gather for the funeral of Russian opposition leader
Alexei Navalny, defying the Kremlin and fears of a police crackdown.
AMNA NAWAZ: Four years after the first COVID-19 death in the U.S., we speak to the CDC director
about new guidance for when to isolate, return to work and get a booster shot.
DR.
MANDY COHEN, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: We think we found
the balance to protecting the most vulnerable and having this clear and simple way for most
folks to protect themselves.
GEOFF BENNETT: And a Nobel Peace Prize winner working to combat poverty in his home country
of Bangladesh defends his reputation against corruption charges.
(BREAK)
GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried today on the outskirts of Moscow two
weeks after his sudden death in a Siberian prison camp.
AMNA NAWAZ: He was mourned by thousands in the streets amid threats by the Kremlin and
a massive police presence.
With his mother and father by his casket, but with his wife and children outside of
Russia, Navalny showed, in death, he could still conjure resistance to Putin's authoritarian
rule.
Nick Schifrin begins our coverage.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Alexei Navalny dreamed of a Russia that was free, its citizens unafraid.
And, today, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, braved arrest to thank the man who helped
them replace fear of the state with faith in themselves.
They chant: "Russia will be free.
Putin is a murderer.
No to war."
WOMAN (through translator): We couldn't not come.
Let them see that many remember, many know.
Silencing won't work.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And yet today was also a reminder of the fate that befalls the Kremlin's opponents,
Navalny's open casket, overseen by his parents, removed quickly before everyone could say
goodbye.
But even in his last moments above ground, in his last rites, as the priests covered
his face, Navalny did it his way.
The orchestra played Frank Sinatra's "My Way" the moment he was buried and, after, the theme
song to "Terminate 2," whose primary message is, the future is not yet written.
And that perhaps is Navalny's legacy, reminding Russians their fate hasn't been decided and
that politics requires participation and the will to fight.
Today, the risk of arrest was real.
Police detained dozens of Navalny supporters across the country.
And before the funeral, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned this:
DMITRY PESKOV, Spokesman for Vladimir Putin (through translator): Any unauthorized gatherings
will be in violation of the law, and those who participate in them will be held accountable.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In Russia's system, Navalny was the equivalent of a terrorist leader,
sentenced to decades in prison for extremism.
He died in a penal colony of what authorities called natural causes.
His wife, Yulia, said he was murdered.
YULIA NAVALNAYA, Widow of Alexei Navalny: Alexei was tortured for three years.
He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits,
phone calls, and then even letters.
And then they killed him.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, Yulia Navalnaya posted this video tribute, a love letter to a love
song, a wife who's lost her husband, a Russian opposition who's lost its leader.
Navalny always knew he could be silenced.
He wasn't afraid of that either.
ALEXEI NAVALNY, Russian Opposition Leader: My message for the situation when I'm killed
is very simple, not give up.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And so, today, they didn't.
"Navalny might have been imprisoned," one attendee said today, "but he died a free man."
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
GEOFF BENNETT: We're going to talk more about this now with Dan Storyev, English managing
editor at OVD-Info.
That's a human rights organization that aims to end political persecution in Russia.
He's also participated in Navalny protests.
Thank you for being with us.
As we saw, thousands of people lined up to pay their respects at the funeral for Alexei
Navalny.
That's despite a heavy police presence aimed at deterring protests against Vladimir Putin.
What should we make of this stunning display of defiance?
DAN STORYEV, English Managing Editor, OVD-Info: Well, thanks for having me.
The important thing to know is that, despite the horrific cost of actually showing up on
the streets -- you can be beaten, you can be imprisoned for many years -- Russians throughout
Russia, not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg, they were still willing to show up because
they despise the war and they despise what the authoritarian Kremlin regime has done
to Alexei Navalny.
And they have been showing up, they have been protesting, some covertly, some overtly for
many years.
And they continued protesting after the full-scale invasion and after the ramping up of repressions.
GEOFF BENNETT: Officials kept Navalny's body for more than a week before ultimately releasing
it to his mother.
And she accused them of trying to pressure her into agreeing to a secret burial.
Why do you think they caved and ultimately allowed this funeral to take place?
DAN STORYEV: That's absolutely right.
Kremlin's officials wanted to put Navalny's family through a world of hurt.
They started doing this for a while now.
this didn't start with them murdering Alexei Navalny.
They have actually destroyed Navalny's mom's business back years ago through lawfare.
And I think the reason why they caved in was a massive public campaign demanding the release
of Navalny's body.
In fact, OVD-Info, my organization, we have say that we participated in that public -- in
a public pressure campaign.
Our platform gathered over 100,000 submissions demanding Navalny's body be released.
GEOFF BENNETT: Isn't the Kremlin, though, impervious to outside pressure like that,
or at least they're thought to be?
DAN STORYEV: Not exactly.
It's quite clear that the Kremlin still is concerned about public attention within Russia
and outside of Russia.
And that's why it's important that Western viewers and Western media in general, that
you keep your eyes peeled on what's going on in Russia, what's going on in the Kremlin,
and what's -- especially what's going on with political prisoners, of whom there are over
1,000 throughout Russia right now.
It's important that we keep attention on them.
GEOFF BENNETT: Alexei Navalny was buried to the soundtrack of his favorite movie, which
was "Terminator 2."
What's the significance there?
DAN STORYEV: Well, Navalny, I think he saw his significance, his symbolic significance
and the meaning of his campaign in Russia.
He wanted to give hope to ordinary Russians.
And I think that "Terminator" theme, more specifically, it's this final shot of Arnold
Schwarzenegger going down with the thumbs-up, I think this sums up what Navalny would have
wanted, would have wanted for the people of Russia to know, that he's trying to give them
hope.
Even beyond the grave, I'm sure that Alexei Navalny would have wanted Russians -- the
Russians not to despair, but to remain hopeful, because Navalny believed in a Russia that
is not just free, but in a Russia that is happy and beautiful.
And that is impossible to achieve without hope for change.
GEOFF BENNETT: With Navalny's sudden death, the Russian opposition has lost its leading
figure.
What does it do now?
DAN STORYEV: Well, the thing about Russian opposition is that it doesn't concentrate
just on Navalny's figure.
Of course, Navalny is an -- a larger-than-life symbol.
So are many other symbols and figures of the Russian opposition and Russian civil society.
But what's important is we keep our eyes on the grassroots element of Russian civil society
and the grassroots element of Russian opposition.
It's quite clear that Russian opposition, Russian civil society, they are not mourning.
They are organizing.
They are taking all the power they have and they are trying to carry on Navalny's banner.
So, the important thing right now is to support them.
Especially for those of you in the West who are wondering, how can I help Russian civil
society and Russian resistance, well, how you can help is by pressuring your representatives,
pressuring your politicians into providing shelter and platform to Russian dissidents,
to Russian civil society representatives who have to flee abroad or even to those who are
within Russia, so that any sort of conversation that Western leaders have with Russian leaders,
the fate of Russian political prisoners is front and center.
GEOFF BENNETT: Dan Storyev is with the human rights organization OVD-Info.
Thank you for your time this evening.
DAN STORYEV: Thank you very much for having me.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: President Biden announced the U.S. military
will begin airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza.
He spoke a day after crowds swarmed an aid convoy and Gaza officials said Israeli fire
killed 115 people.
The Israelis say most of the victims were trampled.
The president addressed the issue at the White House.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough
now.
It's nowhere nearly enough.
Innocent lives are on the line, and children's lives are on the line.
And we won't stand by and let until they -- until get more aid in there.
We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several.
GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, the military wing of Hamas said seven more hostages taken last
October have died from Israeli bombardment.
The group claimed that, all told, Israeli attacks have killed more than 70 hostages.
In Haiti, at least four police officers have been killed in a new burst of gang warfare.
Gunmen attacked across Port-au-Prince on Thursday, and people fled with their hands up.
The gang federation leader Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbecue, vowed to oust the prime
minister.
JIMMY "BARBECUE" CHERIZIER, Haitian Gang Leader (through translator): The first objective
of our fight is to ensure that Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government does not remain in
power.
The armed groups in the provincial towns and in the capital are united today.
GEOFF BENNETT: The U.S. Embassy warned today of continued heavy gunfire near the Port-au-Prince
Airport.
For his part, Prime Minister Henry was in Kenya to secure policing help against the
gangs as part of a U.N. mission.
Back in this country, a judge in Colorado sentenced a paramedic to five years in prison
in the death of Elijah McClain.
Police put McClain in a choke hold during a confrontation in 2019, and paramedics injected
him with the sedative ketamine.
He died three days later.
The man sentenced today, Peter Cichuniec, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
Officials in Texas now say the biggest wildfire in state history may have destroyed 500 homes
and other buildings in the Panhandle.
Drone footage today showed more devastation in the town of Canadian.
Governor Greg Abbott visited the region today and said the scope of the loss is stunning.
GOV.
GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): When you look at the damages that have occurred here, it's just gone, completely
gone, nothing left but ashes on the ground.
GEOFF BENNETT: Fire crews worked again today to make progress before strong winds return
over the weekend.
Blizzard conditions are raging across the Sierra Nevada with 10 feet of snow forecast
into the weekend.
Warnings span 300 miles from Yosemite National Park to Lake Tahoe.
Snow blanketed California roadways today as the most powerful storm of the season rolled
in.
People were warned to expect closures, and ski resorts started shutting down.
Pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens will start selling the abortion pill mifepristone in
selected areas this month.
The companies announced today they have received FDA certification.
They will start sales in a few states where abortion is legal.
It all comes as the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the FDA's approval of the drug.
On Wall Street, tech stocks rallied and pushed the overall market to new records.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 91 points to close at 39087.
The Nasdaq rose 183 points to a new high and the S&P 500 was up 40, also hitting a fresh
high.
And the Tower of London has a new raven master to care for a feathered flock that protects
the 1,000-year-old fortress.
Barney Chandler will look after seven ravens that roam the grounds freely by day and are
kept in cages overnight.
He says legend has it that, if the birds ever leave, England will collapse.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's
political headlines; and Beyonce becomes the first Black woman to top the Billboard country
charts.
We will take a closer look.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its COVID guidance for when people
need to isolate.
It's part of the CDC's broader recommendations on respiratory illnesses.
The agency now says people who've tested positive can return to normal activities when symptoms
are improving and they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without medication.
But the CDC also encourages people with improving symptoms to take additional prevention measures,
like mask-wearing and keeping distance in public.
CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen joins me now.
Dr. Cohen, welcome back to the "NewsHour."
Thanks for joining us.
DR.
MANDY COHEN, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Thanks for having
me.
Great to be here.
AMNA NAWAZ: So this is the first time you have shifted guidance, or isolation guidance,
since 2021.
That was when it was reduced from 10 days to five days.
Why these changes in guidance right now?
What's that based on?
DR.
MANDY COHEN: Well, we are in a different place.
And that's after a lot of hard work to make sure that we had the tools to protect each
other against COVID.
What we have been seeing is lower hospitalizations and lower deaths, even as we saw high levels
of virus spread.
So this past winter season, we saw both in our wastewater data and others that there
was a lot of virus spreading in our community, but luckily those trends in hospitalizations
and death continued to go down.
And what we were seeing is that really vaccination is what is continuing to protect folks.
So we wanted to unify our guidance today, not just for COVID, but across COVID, flu
and RSV, so folks could have commonsense practical solutions that they could use every day that
they can remember, that they can implement across a range of viruses.
AMNA NAWAZ: Now, there were some states, as you know, like California, Oregon, others
that began relaxing their COVID isolation guidance as early as last year, counter to
your guidance at the time.
Is this sort of the CDC kind of chasing, catching up to where people have already been for a
while?
DR.
MANDY COHEN: Well, you know what?
We were looking at this guidance last summer and seeing if we can move in this direction.
And then the virus changed in last August.
And we wanted to make sure we were through another winter season, that those trends in
lower hospitalizations and lower deaths continued to hold.
And the good news is, they did.
And so we feel comfortable moving forward now.
But, remember, like always, this virus is changing.
If anything changes in terms of our effectiveness of vaccines or treatment, we may be back here
needing to change guidance.
But we feel comfortable aligning across COVID, flu and RSV for some simple solutions, like
vaccination, like making sure you get treatment and staying home when you're sick.
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, as you mentioned, the cases of COVID have fallen dramatically, but your
data does show that there are still hundreds of people dying every week from COVID, still
some 20,000 hospitalized weekly.
As you know, this guidance change has its critics.
Among them is Dr. Eric Topol, who co-authored one of the first reviews of asymptomatic COVID
infections.
He said that this policy change is reckless.
And he said it will serve to promote more spread of COVID and long COVID.
Could it do that?
DR.
MANDY COHEN: So, one, I want to say, remember, vaccines and treatment continue to protect
folks.
Just this past season, in the beginning of the season, if we saw that 95 percent of the
people who were coming to the hospital did not have an updated COVID vaccine, and 70
percent didn't have the one from the year before, right?
So what we're seeing, said another way, is, vaccines can protect us from going to the
hospital or having our life being taken by this virus.
So we have to use those tools.
I think you also know that far too few adults got the updated COVID vaccine.
Only about 20, 22 percent of adults got the updated COVID vaccine, 40 percent of seniors.
So we definitely need to see folks using that important tool to protect themselves.
AMNA NAWAZ: But, to be fair, the vaccine can obviously prevent serious illness, but it
doesn't prevent spread of COVID.
Will people isolating for a shorter amount of time potentially add to the spread of the
virus?
DR.
MANDY COHEN: Well, the good news is, when you get vaccinated, right, you are both less
likely to go into the hospital, but you're also less likely to get long COVID, and you
are less likely to get this virus overall, right?
So, less virus spreading means that we are protecting others.
And, now, we wanted to give simple, clear kinds of guidance, so that folks can remember
them, it can be really actionable, because if more people are using the guidance, we
think that's going to benefit everyone.
And, look, the folks who are vulnerable, they were top of mind for us at CDC as we were
thinking about this guidance.
We all know someone who's at higher risk, over 65 or immunocompromised.
I have them in my own family.
So we were thinking about them as we did this guidance.
We think we found the balance to protecting the most vulnerable and having this clear
and simple way for most folks to protect themselves.
AMNA NAWAZ: You also said this week that Americans 65 and older should get an additional dose
of that latest COVID vaccine this spring.
Do you worry that relaxing the guidance at the same time you're asking people to go and
get another booster sends conflicting messages?
DR.
MANDY COHEN: No.
And, in fact, our guidance today, the very first core strategy that we want to emphasize
to folks is about being up to date on your vaccines.
Vaccines is what we are continuing to see protect folks here.
So, we want to make sure folks are getting those updated vaccines.
And I want to preview for folks that we know this COVID virus continues to change, and
we need to stay ahead of it.
And we have already started the process, CDC and FDA, to update the COVID vaccine for later
this year.
So, right now, folks should start planning for this fall to get both an updated COVID
vaccine and an updated flu shot.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Dr. Mandy Cohen, CDC director, thank you very much for joining
us.
Good to speak with you.
DR.
MANDY COHEN: Thank you so much.
GEOFF BENNETT: Nearly half-a-century after its birth from a bloody Civil War, Bangladesh
has made significant strides in reducing poverty.
One of the best known architects of this progress is Muhammad Yunus, who popularized the concept
of microfinance.
But Yunus has run afoul of his country's prime minister and has faced a series of legal challenges
and now criminal charges.
Fred de Sam Lazaro has our report, part of his series Agents for Change.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He's won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal
of Honor.
SEN.
RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Make no mistake, Muhammad Yunus is a genius.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Nearly a half-century ago, this Vanderbilt-trained economist left
a teaching career in Tennessee, saying he was called to serve his newly independent
war-shattered nation.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS, Founder, Grameen Bank: People were dying of hunger.
And I find myself in a very strange situation teaching elegant theories of economics.
Those elegant theories have no use for people who are dying.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He did test one economic theory, offering a few women loans to start
small enterprises like a poultry farm.
It worked, he told me in this 2001 interview.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: People are paying back, and they paid back every penny without any hitch,
so I got very excited.
So I thought I should have my own bank.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The Grameen Bank grew quickly, 97 percent owned by millions of its
female borrowers, success that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
Today, Grameen has a large footprint in Bangladeshi society, far beyond microlending with affiliated
companies that sell cell phone service and food products.
There's even a nursing school.
Its global reach includes Grameen America, which last year loaned $1 billion to low-income
Americans.
All profits are plowed back into expanding the mission.
Yunus has won friends in the highest places across the globe, except at home.
In January, Yunus, who is 83, and three senior Grameen colleagues were sentenced to six months
in prison for violating labor laws, charges he calls politically motivated.
He was released on bail, but this case is only the beginning of his legal troubles.
He faces more than 100 other charges of labor law violations and graft.
What's life like as you go into work these days?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Well, not very comfortable.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: I reached Yunus in his Dhaka office, where, days earlier, a group
of about 35 men appeared unannounced to take over and began padlocking the place at the
end of each day.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: They said: "We are the new management of this coming bank that is under
government control these days."
We went to the police.
Police would not help us.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: This latest disruption is a dramatic escalation of actions targeting
Yunus that began in 2011, when he was removed as chair of the Grameen Bank.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Because government rule doesn't permit anybody to remain in government job
after 60.
I said, this is not a government bank.
This is a bank owned by the poor women.
Anyway, I was forced out.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Can you help explain what is at the root of this antagonism?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: It beats me.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What's not in doubt is that his chief antagonist is the country's
prime minister.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: She calls me as a bloodsucker of the poor people.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Sheikh Hasina recently won a fourth term in elections, widely discredited
and boycotted by opposition parties.
Most of their leaders are in prison.
She's publicly denounced Yunus as a corrupt opportunist in a spat that experts trace back
to 2007 and a time of political upheaval, when Yunus toyed with forming his own party.
It was at the urging of the country's military leaders, he says, and short-lived.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: About 10 weeks, that's about it.
And after the end of these 10 weeks, I declared that, no, I'm not going to create any party
because I cannot handle politics.
That's my -- not my cup of tea.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But experts say Prime Minister Hasina might still perceive Yunus,
a revered civic figure, as a political threat.
Despite pleas for more than 200 global luminaries, from former President Obama to U2's Bono,
to end the -- quote -- "legal harassment," the campaign against Yunus has only intensified.
ALI RIAZ, Illinois State University: This case is an example of a weaponization of judiciary.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Political scientist Ali Riaz at Illinois State University says Sheikh
Hasina has tightened her grip on power.
Geopolitical realities allow her to resist Western pressure, he says, and the Yunus case
sends a chilling message domestically.
ALI RIAZ: The prime minister has received unqualified support from two powers, that
is Russia and China, not to mention India.
India has been the principal backer of this government since 2009.
And this is the message to the Bangladeshis that if Professor Yunus can be persecuted
and punitive measures can be taken, you are nobody.
We can take -- do anything.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, what might Professor Yunus be facing in the weeks and months ahead?
ALI RIAZ: I'm afraid he might actually end up in jail.
I'm sorry to say it.
It breaks my heart to say, but it could happen.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Government officials insist the judicial process is independent of political
interference.
We contacted the Bangladesh embassy in Washington for comment, but did not receive a response.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: I, as the chairman of these companies, never received any salary, any
kind of fee for my attending meetings, nothing.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For his part, Yunus continues to assert his innocence.
He says he's received several offers of asylum abroad, but has ruled out exile.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: This is where I work with my -- with people who have worked together
for years and years.
We don't -- I don't want to abandon them and go someplace else.
I cannot do that.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He has a bail hearing on March 3, also the date when an anti-corruption
commission is scheduled to release what many colleagues fear will be incriminating results
from a yearslong investigation of Yunus' activities.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro.
And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University
of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
GEOFF BENNETT: Only a few days remain before Super Tuesday, which is shaping up to be a
major turning point in the race for the White House.
On that and some of the key issues in the presidential race, we turn to the analysis
tonight of Brooks and Capehart.
That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for
The Washington Post.
Great to see you both, as always.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Hey, Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: So both President Biden and former President Donald Trump visited the
southern border yesterday, as the 2024 presidential campaign ramps up over this issue that has
really confounded administrations of both parties.
That's immigration.
Jonathan, how are Democrats aiming to boost their standing among voters, who increasingly
say that immigration is their top issue in this election?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: By pointing out the fact that the president, the sitting president
of the United States, in conjunction with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer,
along with one of the most conservative members of the Senate -- oh, my gosh, I can't believe
I'm spacing on this -- Lankford.
GEOFF BENNETT: Lankford of Oklahoma, yes.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Senator Lankford from Oklahoma -- that they sat down and hammered out a deal
after the president went before the nation and said, everything is on the table.
I'm willing to negotiate.
They negotiated.
They came up with a bill that bits and pieces of it were leaking out that was so bad, from
the president's base perspective, that they were raising hell about, if this becomes law,
this is going to set immigration policy back for a long time.
But the president thought, we need to do something.
They come up with the bill.
And what happened?
Donald Trump made a phone call, or put out some social media post and said, don't do
it.
Republicans refused to take yes for an answer and gave the president, gave President Biden
the perfect thing to go before the nation and say, I'm trying.
I was part of this deal.
They -- I gave them basically everything they wanted, and they still said no.
Those people are not serious.
And I think, if he hammers that message time and time again, I think it will break through.
GEOFF BENNETT: And part of what Jonathan just described was on full display at the border
yesterday.
President Biden invited President Trump to call on Republicans to support this bipartisan
border deal.
And then former President Trump accused Joe Biden of having what he called a Joe Biden
invasion.
That's the way he referred to the migrant crisis.
I mean, it's fairly clear how they're trying to play the politics here.
DAVID BROOKS: Well, it's obviously Trump's strongest point.
I mean, it's only 28 percent of Americans support Joe Biden's immigration policy.
They prefer Trump's policy over Biden's policy by like infinite percent.
And so Trump has the country on his side when it comes to this border.
And the simple fact is, the Democrats have been sort of out of touch on this issue.
In 2016, you had large numbers of candidates in a Democratic primary raise their hand and
say they were for decriminalizing the border.
That was -- compared to where America is, that's far off.
Second, the Biden policies just haven't worked.
This -- our asylum system was created after World War II to help those with extreme persecution.
That was a long time ago.
Right now, there are like 40 million people in the world who are facing that kind of persecution.
We can't take all those people.
And we can't have a policy that prioritizes the people who are breaking law, rather than
people who are applying through the asylum system according to law.
So, to me, the issue right now is not necessarily immigration.
It's chaos.
And so Biden has to do the thing which I think the British have done, which is to say, we're
going to stop this violent process until we can digest all the people who have -- already
in the system.
And that will at least try to impose some order, because, if there's just chaos, it's
going to be just bad news for Biden.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: But the only problem is, that would be a great thing to do, David,
but there's no money.
One of the things about that Senate bill was that it was giving funding to allow the Customs
and Border Patrol to do the things you were just saying.
So, the chaos will continue, not because the president isn't doing enough, but because
the Senate can't pass a bill that would make it possible for the president to do what he
wants to do, but also for Republicans to get done what they say needs to be done for years
now.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let me ask you this, because the president is weighing some executive
action, absent congressional action, that would allow him to tighten asylum rules.
So if there is a problem -- and both sides say that there is a problem at the southern
border -- and he has the authority to tighten the asylum rules, why not do it?
What's he waiting for?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, I wonder, does he really have the power?
I wonder if the White House -- and you should have asked me that question beforehand so
I could have made some calls to the White House to see what they're doing.
(LAUGHTER)
JONATHAN CAPEHART: But the president has made it clear since the bill -- before the bill
was made public, or just after, that he's willing to do that.
Why he hasn't done that, I wonder if that's because they're trying to really see the legalities
of doing it.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, looking ahead to next week, it's going to be a busy one.
We have got Super Tuesday and the State of the Union.
But let's start with Super Tuesday, because more than a dozen states are set to hold presidential
nominating contests.
And this is a real milestone for the 2024 race.
The results might be anticlimactic, right?
But we will learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
What are you going to be watching for?
DAVID BROOKS: How soon Nikki Haley drops out after she gets crushed in every state.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID BROOKS: I -- Nikki Haley is like 52.
She's got a long political future in front of her.
And if she stays in the race too long after Super Tuesday, she's really damaging the party
that she, I presume, wants to be part of.
And so I imagine that she will drop out.
And the other thing to look for is how much weakness, how much softness is there is in
the Biden coalition.
Obviously, there were some noncommitted voters in Michigan.
Is there a lot of that?
I would strike -- for all the people who are upset with Joe Biden, they're not exactly
rushing out to Dean Phillips.
Like, there's no Dean Phillips juggernaut.
And so that leaves me believe people are nervous about Biden losing, but they like the guy,
they support him, they think he did a good job.
So he's -- I think he has pretty strong support in the Democratic Party.
GEOFF BENNETT: What about you, Jonathan?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
JONATHAN CAPEHART: No, the things I will be looking for will be the percentage spread
between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley.
It's been growing since Iowa.
But the fact that she lost her home state, OK, fine, in South Carolina, but she got 40
percent of the vote.
That is a sizable chunk of the Republican electorate that says, we're not down with
this guy.
And so will that replicate itself in the Super Tuesday states?
And when it comes to the Democratic side, I want to see if there are states that have
uncommitted or noncommitted or Dean Phillips, how much support they get.
And I suspect, especially since it's Super Tuesday, they're not going to get a lot of
support at all.
GEOFF BENNETT: I think perhaps the biggest story of this past week was the Senate minority
leader, Mitch McConnell, announcing that he would not seek another term as the Republican
leader, ending a stretch as the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.
I want to get your reaction to his announcement and really your assessment of his consequential
and controversial legacy.
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I think it was epical, and mostly because he made it clear, I'm out
of touch with the party.
And so I would tell this historical story.
In the 1930s, the Republican Party was a pessimistic, inward-looking party that shut down the borders,
that shut down trade, that was isolationist.
And that was the Republican Party of the 1930s.
And that party lasted until 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower took an inward party and made it
an outward party that was for internationalism, that was for free trade, that was for immigration.
And that Ike-led party really lasted 60 years.
And over the last couple years, we can say that party's over and we're returning to the
1930s Republican Party, isolation, some degree of nativism, and some degree of protectionism.
GEOFF BENNETT: On that point, Jonathan, I was talking with a top Democrat the other
day who said he thought he would never be in a position to say that he would miss Mitch
McConnell.
(LAUGHTER)
GEOFF BENNETT: But given the alternatives, the potential alternatives, that's kind of
how he's feeling.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, you know what?
Let me give Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell his flowers.
Let me just give him his flowers, because he is our version of the master of the Senate,
wily, cunning.
No one knows the Senate rules like Mitch McConnell.
He's even -- he even made up some rules, made up the rule that you can't -- a sitting president
cannot nominate someone to the Supreme Court with nine months to go before the election.
The American people should choose the president who then chooses the justice.
So he stole a Supreme Court seat from President -- from President Obama.
Fast-forward to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a month before the election.
Three days, three days before the election, he turned tail and said, no, we must -- we
must have a new justice.
And Justice Amy Coney Barrett got onto the Supreme -- onto the Supreme Court, sealing
a conservative supermajority, 6-3 supermajority.
Another thing he did was remake the federal judiciary in the image that he wanted it to
be in, which was young and conservative, a pipeline of federal judges, young federal
judges, some of dubious quality, who would then rise up and fill higher -- higher benches
in the federal judiciary.
And then, last but not least, Senator McConnell, when he was majority leader, voted not to
convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial for his role in the insurrection of
January 6.
If he had voted to convict Donald Trump, other senators would have followed along.
Trump would have been convicted.
We might not be in the position we are in today.
And what made it what -- his action even more galling was that, after he cast that vote
and let Trump off the hook, he stood in the well of the Senate and gave a fire-and-brimstone
speech that was the right thing to say.
Unfortunately, it didn't match the vote he gave.
So as -- while I will give him his flowers for being a mastermind, a master political
genius for what he wanted to do, he -- I think he's responsible for a lot of the problems
that we're facing right now in the country and our democracy.
(CROSSTALK)
GEOFF BENNETT: What's that?
DAVID BROOKS: Those aren't very nice flowers.
(LAUGHTER)
GEOFF BENNETT: David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, our thanks to you both.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Geoff.
AMNA NAWAZ: This week, Beyonce continued her reign at the top of the country charts.
Last week, she became the first Black woman to hit number one with her banjo-infused bop
"Texas Hold 'Em."
The song has brought a new audience to the genre and reminded music fans of country music's
deep African and African American roots.
We take a closer look for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
Like many looking for connection during the pandemic, 47-year-old Marie Moring took her
love of dance to TikTok, despite the protests of her daughter, Patience Hall.
MARIE MORING, TikTok Creator: Hopped on TikTok after my daughters told me not to, because
it was for the younger generation, but I had to prove them wrong.
AMNA NAWAZ: Mother and daughter soon teamed up online.
Tell me about the typical kind of dances you do.
MARIE MORING: For me, in -- particularly, it's the upbeat, funky, move your body in
this rhythmic fashion, old-school kind of '90s hip-hop.
AMNA NAWAZ: But, last week, the duo stepped into a new genre, a country song, courtesy
of Beyonce.
MARIE MORING: I said, oh, we're doing country now, Beyonce?
(LAUGHTER)
AMNA NAWAZ: The song, "Texas Hold 'Em," is one of two new country singles she released
off her upcoming album.
MARIE MORING: Why not country?
I started thinking about my mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother, who
are all in Texas, who gave me an upbringing of summers in the country.
PATIENCE HALL, TikTok Creator: Just to hear that cowgirl attitude, it really made me want
to jump into it too.
AMNA NAWAZ: Can I tell you my favorite part of your dance?
MARIE MORING: What's that?
AMNA NAWAZ: The finger pistols.
MARIE MORING: Hey.
JASMINE JENNINGS, TikTok Creator: I don't know how you dance the country music.
So I just made it my own, like a lot of people are, and had fun with it.
AMNA NAWAZ: Thirty-year-old Jasmine Jennings is a professional dancer in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
She created her own line dance to "Texas Hold 'em," which now has over 10 million views.
JASMINE JENNINGS: It blew up pretty fast.
I was surprised that a lot of people enjoyed what I did.
So someone asked me to make a less complicated version of that.
So I did, and that one blew up a little bit.
And then someone said, OK, now do a musical theater version, which I have never done musical
theater.
So I had to do a little bit of research on that one.
And so it's just kind of growing.
I have seen people belly dancing.
I have seen people river dancing to that song.
It's sparking a lot of creativity and challenging people to move to music that they typically
wouldn't.
AMNA NAWAZ: While some Beyonce fans turn to country through her new tracks, longtime country
music fan Vinnie "Doc" Coletti was drawn to "Texas Hold 'em"'s opening chords played on
his favorite instrument.
VINNIE "DOC" COLETTI, Country Music Fan: I mean, the first thing that stood out to me
was the banjo intro.
I recognized what that was right away.
That was definitely like a low-tune fretless banjo.
And I was fascinated, to me, to hear, especially from Beyonce.
AMNA NAWAZ: Coletti shared the songs on a country music subreddit, a message board devoted
to the genre that he moderates.
And he says while most of the response was positive, some questioned why Beyonce would
step into country and why the songs were getting so much attention.
Would you expect to see some kind of backlash?
I mean, I know country music is famously, especially modernly, overwhelmingly white,
largely male.
VINNIE "DOC" COLETTI: There has definitely been a little bit of backlash, which is more
gatekeeping than anything.
But there are always people who think that she's intruding on the white space music as
a Black woman.
And I have seen a few posts like that.
ALICE RANDALL, Author, "My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past,
Present, and Future": Without Black influences, country is folk music.
AMNA NAWAZ: Alice Randall is widely recognized as the first Black woman to co-write a number
one country hit.
ALICE RANDALL: Black people have been in country abidingly since the beginning of the genre.
For example, the banjo has a long and complex history, but that history begins in Africa.
The kind of bent note open-throated singing that we hear in country or even the sound
of the steel guitar, these sounds have their aesthetic origins in Africa.
AMNA NAWAZ: Randall spent over 40 years as a songwriter in Nashville.
Her new book, "My Black Country," unpacks the erasure of country music's Black roots
and the industry's exclusion of Black artists for decades.
Even today, a country music radio station in Oklahoma initially refused to play Beyonce's
songs.
ALICE RANDALL: Beyonce has blasted through the intended and not-intended boundaries,
the cultural redlining, and she has ascended to a height no other Black woman has ascended
to in country.
This is a tribute to her own genius, and it spotlights the genius that came before.
AMNA NAWAZ: A path forged by trailblazers like Charley Pride and DeFord Bailey and,
more recently, Darius Rucker, Rissi Palmer, and Brittney Spencer, work that Randall argues
allows the music to reach a wider audience, an audience that, thanks to Beyonce, now includes
Marie and Patience.
MARIE MORING: We have been digging into country music.
Like, people are sharing more artists.
AMNA NAWAZ: I guess the big question is, does this mean we're going to be seeing more country
music dances on your TikTok?
MARIE MORING: Listen, I'm invested.
PATIENCE HALL: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
MARIE MORING: We got boots.
PATIENCE HALL: I was just about to say, we went to the Target, and we got our -- we got
our country hats.
We got our boots.
We got our attire.
MARIE MORING: Yes.
PATIENCE HALL: So, we're ready for anything.
MARIE MORING: We're ready.
GEOFF BENNETT: And we will be back shortly.
AMNA NAWAZ: But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.
It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.
GEOFF BENNETT: And for those of you staying with us, we look at one man's extraordinary
efforts to return neglected or misplaced family mementos to their owners.
Special correspondent Christopher Booker reports from New York in this encore story.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: They can show everything from life's big moments to snapshots of the
everyday, but these videos all share the same purpose, to find out just who these memories
might belong to.
It is a task undertaken by a man who has been dubbed the Sherlock of TikTok.
DAVID GUTENMACHER, Museum of Lost Memories: Any photograph is my preferred priority.
But I am looking for anything that is technically a loss memory.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: For 27-year-old David Gutenmacher, his search often begins at a
thrift store.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: It could be a home movie, a film reel, a VHS tape, a diary, letters,
photo albums, and even memory cards that are stuck inside of cameras.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Gutenmacher was looking
for a project when he stumbled upon a bucket full of old photos.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: Immediately, I thought that, if my family photographs were in there,
I would want someone to flip over the back, read my family name on it, and then try to
find me online.
So, I thought I might as well start doing that for other people.
COMPUTER VOICE: I found this strip of film at the thrift store in New York.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: So, he turned to social media and created what is the popular Museum
of Lost Memories, a TikTok and Instagram account of the same name with more than a million
followers combined.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: This is just some of the stuff that I have collected over the last
two years.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Gutenmacher, a social media manager for a health care company by
day, brings his finds home to digitize and post to his accounts, hoping the social media
platforms will help deliver the old videos, letters, pictures, and anything else he finds
to their original owners.
Is there any commonality in the way of which these items have ended up in the places you
have found them?
DAVID GUTENMACHER: Yes, I think most of the things that I find come from either a move
or, after a family member passes away, a lot of the items get misplaced, boxed up, cleared
out, and people don't really know what they are getting rid of.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: So far, only 10 percent of the materials has made its way back home.
But whether a return happens or not, he believes the effort is worth it.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: I just love it.
I think it's important.
I think it is extremely important.
I think that people deserve to have their memories back.
And I think that everyday life is important to be preserved.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Just a month-and-a-half after starting the museum, Gutenmacher was
able to make his first connection with this tape.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: Yes, I found this at a thrift store on Long Island.
The only clues we had to go off of were was that it said Africa.
But, right away, I realized it was a vacation from Africa.
So, they likely were not from there.
And then there was a shirt.
He was wearing a shirt that said Wesleyan University.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: That shirt was the key that helped identify Jono Marcus.
JONO MARCUS, Contacted by Gutenmacher: At first, being contacted, I did not think it
was real.
I thought it was spam.
WOMAN: Coming along.
MAN: How you doing?
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In 1989, Marcus was 23 years old when he and his parents went on
a safari to Kenya and Tanzania.
His mom brought a Sony mini D.V.
camcorder and captured this footage that would be found by Gutenmacher more than 30 years
later.
WOMAN: I'm talking to you.
(LAUGHTER)
JONO MARCUS: And we didn't really lose track of it like we lost it.
It just gets buried in the stuff.
And then my father died around seven years ago.
And when my mom moved house, it's a little cassette tape.
So, it just kind of got lost in there.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Lost, until Gutenmacher's post went viral and a team of volunteers started
chipping in to try to find out who this family was.
JONO MARCUS: This woman sent me a link, and I look at it in disbelief.
Like, sure enough, my mom and dad and I are trending on TikTok, which I didn't even know
what that meant at the time.
So, it turns out that the video garnered so many comments that they -- TikTokers decided
to do some Internet sleuthing and found me.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Marcus, who is now 56 and lives in Bethesda, Maryland, ended up
posting another video on TikTok, recreating parts of the original footage of with his
wife and children.
He says these two videos which have been viewed more than 10 million times, struck a chord
with people during the pandemic.
JONO MARCUS: I think it presented opportunities for people to finally just feel just themselves,
let go, not be scared.
There have been a lot of TikTok posts that include videos of people crying when they
see it.
And part of it is very -- it's a very simple kind of family on a safari.
And I think the ending with my father and then showing that he had passed, that just
-- as an ending, that just really hit a lot of people.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Since then, Gutenmacher has made several more connections, including
with the Friedmans (ph), a Jewish family who were in Vienna in World War II and lost these
photos taken in 1943.
With the help from his followers online, he was able to track down their relatives and
later discovered they had likely fled to New York.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: And we were able to get in contact with that family and return those
memories to them, which they had never seen before.
And it was just like -- it was the perfect story from start to finish of having just
one or two clues, and then having so many people participate in trying to find that
family, and then being able to find them in the end.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: With the viral success of his posts, people from all over the world
have begun sending him materials, in hopes the museum can help find the original owners.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: I mean, people find things in Jordan, India, South America.
All over the world, people have sent in things that they find at their local thrift stores
or even on the ground in the street.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: We watched the open one package from the United Kingdom.
DAVID GUTENMACHER: Oh, wow, look at this one.
Looks like a group of miners.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: It contains both a picture and a letter written in cursive addressed
to "Jim, Ruth and the boys."
It begins with: "Birthdays keep coming along.
And it's nice to think that we're remembered."
DAVID GUTENMACHER: If I can leave anybody with any message, it's to preserve your own
family history.
Scan your photographs.
Write down names on the back of them.
If you're young and your grandparents are still around, sit with them and ask them who's
in what photograph, interview them, get their story down on video, convert VHS tapes, digitize
your film reels.
All of this stuff is going away.
And the sooner you have it preserved, the better.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Gutenmacher believes it's an effort that will pay off for generations
to come.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Christopher Booker in New York.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, before we go, we want to celebrate the man who has been one of the
guiding forces and unseen heroes of this program.
Our formidable director, Joe Camp, is retiring after 50 years at WETA.
GEOFF BENNETT: Joe's career here started in the early 1970s as a stagehand and cameraman.
He was one of the camera operators for the Watergate hearings during PBS' gavel-to-gavel
coverage that eventually led to the "MacNeil/Lehrer Report," which later became the "NewsHour."
AMNA NAWAZ: In 1983, Joe became a director for WETA programs, including "Washington Week,"
where he worked closely with our dear colleague and one of Joe's biggest fans, the late Gwen
Ifill.
GEOFF BENNETT: And for the last 15 years, Joe has been directing the "NewsHour" with
Jim Lehrer as anchor, then with Gwen and Judy Woodruff, and now with us.
He has led our team through countless newscasts, election nights and congressional hearings,
breaking news and live shows from around the world.
AMNA NAWAZ: To our team, he has been a steady, wise, generous leader who's made what you
at home see on this show better with his care and skill.
To me, he's been the calm, but firm voice I hear in my ear, steering the ship, propelling
us forward and occasionally making us laugh.
Joseph, we will miss you so.
GEOFF BENNETT: Joe, thank you for your steady hand in the control room, your camaraderie,
your good humor, your dedication to the craft.
But, above all, thanks for being an unwavering source of support to us all.
We wish you a retirement as extraordinary as the legacy that you're leaving behind.
AMNA NAWAZ: Joe, here's to you.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
GEOFF BENNETT: The gold standard.
(APPLAUSE)
AMNA NAWAZ: We will miss you so.
And that is the "NewsHour."
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Have a good evening and a great weekend.