PBS NewsHour live episode, March 4, 2024（PBS NewsHour live episode, March 4, 2024）

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GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: The Supreme Court rules that states cannot remove former President
Donald Trump from their presidential ballots.
GEOFF BENNETT: Vice President Kamala Harris calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza,
as negotiations to release Israeli hostages held by Hamas continue.
AMNA NAWAZ: And our new series on America's social safety net begins with a look at how
the system began, the political fights over the last 90 years, and where it stands today.
JAMILA MICHENER, Cornell University: A majority of Americans, something approaching 60 percent,
depending on when you measure and how you measure, will experience poverty at some point
in their lifetime.
(BREAK)
AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the 14th Amendment does not allow individual
states to remove former President Donald Trump from their ballots.
GEOFF BENNETT: In an unsigned opinion, the court said only that Congress, not states,
can disqualify presidential candidates under the Constitution's so-called Insurrection
Clause.
The former president celebrated the decision.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate:
Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to
have it that way.
And it has nothing to do with the fact that it's the leading candidate.
Whether it was the leading candidate or a candidate that was well down on the totem
pole, you cannot take somebody out of a race.
GEOFF BENNETT: And William Brangham joins us now.
So, William, the court was unequivocal.
States do not have the power to remove federal candidates from the ballot under the Insurrection
Clause.
Help us understand how the justices arrived at this ruling.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Remember, Geoff, this came out of a group of Republican voters in Colorado
saying that January 6, to their mind, was clearly an insurrection, and that Donald Trump
was the cheerleader of that insurrection.
And they cited this Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which is, as you mentioned, the
Insurrection Clause.
And it argues that, if you have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and then you engage
in an insurrection after the fact, you can't hold office again.
And so they appealed that all the way to the Colorado State Supreme Court, and they won.
And Donald Trump was ruled that he has to be taken off the Republican primary ballot.
The Supreme Court is what -- they overturned that today.
And they basically said, you cannot have a system where a lot of different states are
making this decision, because it would simply be a sort of ad hoc state-by-state basis.
In their ruling, they said: "For the reasons given, responsibility for enforcing Section
3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the states.
The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand."
It said states can choose to withhold and withdraw state candidates, not federal candidates.
GEOFF BENNETT: So, tomorrow is Super Tuesday.
Colorado is one of the many states holding a primary tomorrow, but the impact of this
decision sweeps far beyond Colorado.
Isn't that right?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's exactly right.
Trump will be on the ballot in Colorado.
They printed the ballots already and thought, OK, if the ruling comes in the other direction,
those votes just won't get counted.
That doesn't matter now.
As you mentioned, there are over 30 states that were examining some kind of a challenge
on 14th Amendment grounds to pull Donald Trump off their ballots.
All of those go away now.
Trump will be on the ballot in all the states.
GEOFF BENNETT: How did the court deal with a specific question of whether Donald Trump
is an insurrectionist?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They didn't.
They didn't bring it up in the hearing last month.
They didn't bring it up in this ruling.
There was some disagreement in the ruling today as to who gets to make that decision
and when they make the decision.
The four female justices -- it was interesting how it split on gender lines here -- all four
female justices said that the ruling that states shouldn't be able to make this decision
should have stood.
But Kagan, Sotomayor and Justice Jackson all took issue with the further breadth of this
ruling, which they argue made it much harder to actually enforce Section 3, saying that
Congress has to write a particular statute in order to enforce a part of the Constitution.
It's very unusual.
These three justices wrote that the other justices crafted this ruling to insulate themselves
and Donald Trump.
I'm going to read a little bit of what they said.
They wrote -- quote -- "The majority announces novel rules for how that enforcement must
operate.
It reaches out to decide Section 3 questions not before us and to foreclose future efforts
to disqualify a presidential candidate under that provision.
In a sensitive case crying out for judicial restraint, it abandons that course."
They are clearly not happy with this, something to remember when we see all these headlines
that this was a unanimous ruling.
GEOFF BENNETT: And separately, William, Allen Weisselberg, who is one of Donald Trump's
longest-serving associates, he pleaded guilty today to perjury?
Bring us up to speed on that case.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right.
Weisselberg was for almost 50 years Donald Trump's chief financial guy.
He got his start as Fred Trump's, Donald Trump's father's bookkeeper.
He admitted that he lied under oath as part of -- he lied to investigators and on the
stand, as part of this big sweeping civil fraud trial that just socked Donald Trump
with nearly half-a-billion dollars in fines.
In that ruling, the civil fraud ruling, the judge in that case ruled that Weisselberg
was central to all of the different fraudulent things that Donald Trump got up to, banned
him from serving as a financial officer, said he's got to pay back half the $2 million severance
that Donald Trump gave him when he was walking out the door.
So now that he's pled guilty to perjury, he could spend a couple of months in prison.
Notably, in this case -- and, all along, and this has been an incredible frustration to
prosecutors in this case -- Weisselberg has never implicated Donald Trump in any wrongdoing.
GEOFF BENNETT: All right, William Brangham, thank you so much for all of that reporting
this evening.
We appreciate it.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thanks, Geoff.
AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other news: The biggest storm in the West so far this winter has moved
on after dumping mountains of snow in the Sierra Nevada.
But now another storm is moving in on its heels.
Stephanie Sy has our report.
STEPHANIE SY: A new round of snow is blanketing the mountains of Northern California, even
as residents struggle to dig out from an epic days-long blizzard.
Hurricane-force winds whipped up snow squalls in the Sierra Nevada, where some communities
were buried under more than seven feet of snow.
Snowplow driver Kyle Frankland says his equipment is wearing out.
KYLE FRANKLAND, Snowplow Driver: The snow is wet underneath and there's about a foot
of fresh snow in Truckee here, and it's been hectic.
I have broken a lot of parts.
STEPHANIE SY: Of course, there's also the fun part.
JENELLE POTVIN, Truckee, California, Resident: Our dogs are having a blast.
Our neighbors are having fun.
Everybody's snowmobiling and skiing in the streets.
STEPHANIE SY: The storm closed ski resorts, but die-hard skiers weren't deterred.
SLATER STEWART, Truckee, California, Resident: The storm has been pretty crazy.
I have mostly just been hanging out inside.
But, today, we're going to go ski some mellow tree lines and hopefully avoid the avalanches.
STEPHANIE SY: After a weekend spent closed, Interstate 80 outside Lake Tahoe reopened
today to all but big rig trucks.
An avalanche also briefly closed a separate highway into Tahoe.
Truckee business owner Kevin Dupui saw only a trickle of customers.
KEVIN DUPUI, Truckee, California, Resident: Business has been pretty slow, considering
all the roads were shut down and some of the hills were shut down, but we totally get it,
because the roads haven't been that safe, so don't really want people driving around.
STEPHANIE SY: Utility crews have been working to restore power to thousands of businesses
and residents.
Meanwhile, in the Texas Panhandle, it's fire, not ice, that's the problem.
The largest wildfire in the state's history continues to rage, fueled by strong winds.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire is only 15 percent contained.
It's one of a cluster of blazes that have already burned some 1,900 square miles around
Amarillo.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.
AMNA NAWAZ: The Texas fires are now blamed for two deaths.
Officials say the fires also destroyed hundreds of homes and killed thousands of cattle.
A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, pleaded guilty today to leaking
highly classified military documents online.
The 22-year-old agreed to serve a maximum of nearly 17 years in federal prison.
After the hearing in Boston, federal prosecutors said they hoped the case and the plea deal
send a message.
JOSHUA LEVY, Acting U.S. Attorney, District of Massachusetts: Jack Teixeira will never
get a sniff of a classified piece of information for the rest of his life.
But we also bring these cases for general deterrence.
The message goes out to anyone who may be tempted to violate their position of trust
like Mr. Teixeira that there are very, very severe consequences.
AMNA NAWAZ: Teixeira posted secret assessments of Russia's war in Ukraine and other topics
online.
Members of the social media platform Discord have said he was trying to impress them.
The State Department urged Americans today to leave Haiti, as heavily armed gangs attacked
the main international airport.
Late Sunday, the Haitian government declared an emergency after gangs freed thousands of
prison inmates, leaving burning tires and open prison doors in their wake.
Police said an overnight curfew could help them recapture the escapees.
In Iran, results from Friday's elections show hard-liners easily kept control of Parliament.
But turnout was just 41 percent, the lowest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
That was in part due to an opposition boycott.
Still, officials today rejected American criticism of how the election was conducted.
NASSER KANAANI, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman (through translator): If U.S. government officials
are concerned about democracies and votes of nations, they first find a fix for their
own country and the election system's health in America itself, as we are seeing strange
stories in every U.S. election.
AMNA NAWAZ: The election was Iran's first since anti-government protests rocked the
country more than a year ago.
Lawmakers in France voted overwhelmingly today to enshrine abortion rights into the national
Constitution.
President Emmanuel Macron pushed for that after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide
abortion rights in America.
Today's vote in Paris was 780-72.
Abortion has been legal in France since 1975 and is widely supported.
The European Union has fined Apple nearly $2 billion for antitrust violations involving
music streaming.
The bloc said Apple has illegally barred Spotify and other rivals from telling users they can
save money on subscriptions outside the iPhone system.
MARGRETHE VESTAGER, Antitrust Commissioner, European Union: For A decade, Apple has restricted
music streaming app developers from informing their consumers about cheaper options available
outside of the app.
This is illegal, and it has impacted millions of European consumers.
AMNA NAWAZ: Apple disputed the E.U.'s finding and said it will appeal the decision.
Back in this country, JetBlue and Spirit Airlines scrapped plans for a merger valued at $3.8
billion.
A federal judge had blocked the plan in January, saying it violated antitrust law.
The deal would have formed the fifth largest carrier in the nation.
And on Wall Street, stocks edged lower after last week's run-up.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 97 points to close below $38,990.
The Nasdaq fell 67 points.
The S&P 500 was down six.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": Israelis who live near the Gaza border return home
for the first time since Hamas' October 7 attack; presidential candidates make their
last case to voters before Super Tuesday; Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the
latest political headlines; plus much more.
Today, Israeli opposition leader and war cabinet member Benny Gantz was in Washington, D.C.,
to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris.
The trip came without the authorization of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and as Egypt, Qatar and Hamas hold negotiations over a possible deal that would pause the
war in Gaza and release Israeli hostages.
Our Nick Schifrin is following all of this and joins us now.
Always good to see you, Nick.
So, let's start with the negotiations in Cairo.
What do we know about how they're progressing, based on your reporting?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Publicly, both sides are sticking to their longstanding combative positions.
Israel didn't even send its negotiators to Cairo to be part of these negotiations.
And Hamas says it demands a permanent cease-fire, something that Israel has rejected out of
hand.
But U.S. officials tell me the negotiations continue, and they have made progress with
the idea of having some kind of deal before next week, before Ramadan begins.
U.S. officials tell me Israel has agreed to the outline of a deal that would pause the
war for six weeks and release 35 to 40 hostages in the first round.
Israel would release Palestinian detainees, and Israel would allow increased humanitarian
aid into Gaza.
Now, there are two major sticking points at this point, Geoff.
Hamas refuses to hand over the names of those 35 to 40 hostages they would release in the
first round.
And Israel is pushing back on Hamas demands on specifically which Palestinian detainees
they want released.
U.S. officials do believe that the decision point at this point really rests in the hands
of Hamas.
Meantime, of course, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.
Those U.S. airdrops we saw right there beginning this weekend will continue.
And U.S. officials say they're considering other means to deliver aid, including through
a northern point into Gaza using private security firms, even, Geoff, by the sea.
GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.
Let's talk more about the U.S. approach, because we mentioned this meeting that happened today
between the Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz and the vice president, Kamala Harris.
Help us understand what led to it and what they actually discussed.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, U.S. officials tell me that Gantz requested this trip.
And the people who met Gantz today tell me that he's likely here really just to check
out where the U.S. stands on all of the issues that Israel is dealing with, especially with
Gaza and the region.
And the U.S. priorities, according to Kamala Harris, who spoke to reporters earlier today,
are aid to Gaza and the hostage deal.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States: Far too many Palestinian civilians,
innocent civilians have been killed.
We need to get more aid in.
We need to get the hostages out.
And that remains our position.
And I will tell you that it is important that we all understand that they're -- we're in
a window of time right now where we can actually get a hostage deal done.
We all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and how it does matters.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Administration -- administration officials tell me that Harris is trying to
pressure both Hamas and Israel to make that deal before Ramadan begins.
As for Gantz, he is leading in Israeli polls right now.
And he said over the last few months that perhaps he would be willing to take steps
that would bring down the Israeli government.
But those people I spoke to who spoke to Gantz earlier today say he's actually less interested
in that and is more interested in trying to get a deal with Netanyahu to have an election
by the fall.
GEOFF BENNETT: Separately, the U.N. today released a report about sexual violence on
October 7.
What did it say?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, this report is horrific.
It concluded that there is -- quote -- "clear and convincing information that sexual violence,
including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed
against hostages."
And that echoes, of course, what Israel has been saying happened by Hamas militants on
October the 7th in Israel.
But the report also concludes this, that there are -- quote -- "reasonable grounds" to believe
that such violence may be ongoing to those hostages in Gaza right now.
Israel certainly believes that to be the case.
And Israeli officials believe that that may be one of the reasons why Hamas is resisting
releasing some of the female hostages.
GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.
Well, inside Southern Israel near Gaza, much of life has been paused.
But I understand you have the story today of schools that are actually restarting.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, that's right.
It absolutely has been paused in Southern Gaza over the last few months.
And much of Southern Gaza has, in fact, been evacuated.
But this weekend, we filmed in Sderot.
That is the largest city in Southern Israel right there nearest Gaza.
On October the 7th, Hamas killed at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers.
Now the government is facilitating families to return and restarting schools.
And a warning: Some of the images in our report are disturbing to watch.
In Sderot's Hamakif Haklali Amit Secondary School, it's the first day of school for the
second time this year.
For five months, all of these students and their families have been displaced.
And so today's a reunion for boys who can be boys again, including Joseph Hi.
JOSEPH HI, Student: I am very, very, very excited to see the new school year.
I'm not so excited to see the teachers.
(LAUGHTER)
NICK SCHIFRIN: Those teachers feel being here is their duty, and Mali Nesimpour brings additional
responsibilities, her two youngest children.
She doesn't have childcare, but she felt she had to be here, as we talked about before
she returned.
MALI NESIMPOUR, Teacher: I must go do my job.
I have responsibility to my students.
NICK SCHIFRIN: She made those students responsible for one homework assignment, create cards
of the Israeli soldiers who've died since October the 7th and the words they lived by.
MALI NESIMPOUR (through translator): Love everyone.
Love every people.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ilan Abecasis is trying to give a lot of love.
He's a history teacher and the vice principal, and he knows what the students have endured.
ILAN ABECASIS, Vice Principal: They absolutely with the post-trauma, and we are trying to
make educational and routine, but how can you come to -- come back to routine when this
movie is on your mind?
NICK SCHIFRIN: That very real movie of Israel's Black Saturday is enshrined on the school's
wall.
On October the 7th, Hamas terrorists killed 51 people in Sderot, including Dolev Swisa,
a former student at the school, and his wife, Odaya, a former staff member.
That morning, Hamas gunmen drove into downtown Sderot unimpeded, and Odaya Swisa ended up
in an ambush.
A gunman shot and killed her point blank.
And in the back seat, their 6- and 3-year-old daughters.
Police approached, and the 6-year-old asked which side they were on.
She tells them she was protecting her little sister.
That day, gunmen also killed Dolev Swisa, leaving the girls orphans.
Sderot is the closest Israeli city to Gaza, and Hamas left it in flames.
They targeted police vehicles with heavy weapons, left executed bodies on the road.
They captured the police station, and they massacred dozens of tourists waiting at the
bus stop.
Today, the bus stop has been cleaned up.
A mall has reopened.
But the scars are everywhere.
This tour is standing on the side of what used to be the police station.
And the playgrounds are mostly empty.
MALI NESIMPOUR: Now the city, it's kind of a ghost.
And it's very hard to live like that.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Nesimpour and her six children evacuated from Sderot to three different hotels
and homes, ending up in Jerusalem.
MALI NESIMPOUR: We want our house back.
It's not comfortable to live in another house.
NICK SCHIFRIN: How does it feel to be back in Sderot?
MALI NESIMPOUR: The parents in Sderot are very, very, very afraid to send their children.
Our city will be alive.
We will be alive, but we must be patient.
We must say that we're under war.
The war is not ended.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Abecasis evacuated his family 175 miles south to Eilat, except for his youngest
son, who deployed to Gaza for a hundred days.
MAN (through translator): We began on Sunday.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Abecasis also evacuated what he calls his second family to Eilat, his students.
He calls himself his students' anchor and hopes that education in the desert or in Sderot
provides routine and reassurance.
ILAN ABECASIS: What does child ask for everywhere in the world?
Quiet, security, education, run like children in street, like any other child in the world,
Sderot children too.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Do you feel safe in Sderot?
ILAN ABECASIS: Personally, yes, I feel safe because I'm sure that October 7 will not come
back again.
But I know a lot of people, they don't want to come back to Sderot again until the government
or someone gives them a promise that this is the last war.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But Eli Butera doesn't believe that promise yet.
ELI BUTERA, Resident of Sderot, Israel: The trust has been gone.
We don't trust the government.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Butera and his wife and daughter have also lived in multiple places since October
the 7th.
They returned to Sderot when his daughter's state-sponsored childcare ran out.
He supports the war in Gaza, but cannot forgive his own government for a generational intelligence
and security failure.
ELI BUTERA: They have been ignored all the alerts.
There were a lot of alerts that they're going to do it.
The government, the army and the intelligence just ignored.
The monster needs to die.
But who's the real criminal here?
NICK SCHIFRIN: For Tali Levy, those politics can wait, but she remains in a rented apartment.
She refuses to return to Sderot because she doesn't think it's safe.
TALI LEVY, Displaced Israeli: I have to take out the poison from there.
I have to clean it.
I can't even -- I can't even smell in the house.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For months, Levy has stayed busy helping others and giving tours to visitors
who support Israel.
But now she feels she needs her own support for post-traumatic stress.
TALI LEVY: I was so strong.
I suddenly felt that I'm not good.
It's very hard for me to be on the other side, the one that needs help.
NICK SCHIFRIN: All she can hope is that, one day, she will feel confident enough to return
to Sderot and that the city's recovery will also be the country's.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
AMNA NAWAZ: It's the final countdown to Super Tuesday, when voters in 16 states will make
their voices heard and a third of all Republican delegates are at stake.
The two remaining GOP candidates both tallied primary wins over the weekend and hit the
campaign trail with their sights set on tomorrow.
Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.
LISA DESJARDINS: At Wilber's Barbecue in Eastern North Carolina, the food has always been served
with a side of politics.
LASHONA SCOTT, Head Cook, Wilber's Barbecue: Nobody gets mad if you're talking about politics
while you eat because they're too busy focusing on trying to get their bellies full.
LISA DESJARDINS: The restaurant has hosted its fair share of politicians across its 60-year
history, including Presidents George H.W.
Bush and Bill Clinton.
But in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and the state's presidential primary, the
focus has been the next race for president.
RYAN HERRING, North Carolina Voter: I would like to see Donald Trump on it.
I don't really care about a career politician or somebody that's just going to talk a bunch
of smoke.
LISA DESJARDINS: In this town hundreds of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration
is top of mind for some voters.
RICHARD LANIER, North Carolina Voter: I think that immigration is a key issue for most Americans
right now.
And I think that it's a big problem.
And the next one would be inflation.
A lot of families are suffering because of inflation.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate:
I'm thrilled to be back.
LISA DESJARDINS: The former president, fresh off a trip to the border, seized on those
concerns during a rally in North Carolina this weekend.
DONALD TRUMP: Our border is an open and gushing wound.
LISA DESJARDINS: Trump railed against the bipartisan immigration deal that he helped
demolish last month.
He ramped up attacks on migrants and, aware that many voters see him as a threat to democracy,
made unfounded accusations trying to pin the idea onto his rival, President Joe Biden.
DONALD TRUMP: Biden's conduct on our border is by any definition a conspiracy to overthrow
the United States of America.
LISA DESJARDINS: The message resonated with the thousands of Trump supporters who lined
up outside hours before he took the stage.
DIANE BROWN, North Carolina Voter: We're coming to support a man that has been brave enough
to withstand all kinds of persecution.
And I love him.
I don't care what anybody says about him.
I freaking love him.
LISA DESJARDINS: But Trump's last remaining Republican rival, Nikki Haley, is staying
in the fight, at least for now.
NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: We defeated a dozen of the fellows.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
NIKKI HALEY: I just have one more I'm trying to catch up to.
LISA DESJARDINS: The former South Carolina governor won her first primary contest yesterday,
earning all of the GOP delegates in Washington, D.C., and making history for a Republican
woman.
She hopes the endorsement of two moderate senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan
Collins of Maine, give her momentum heading into tomorrow, when Republicans in both states
head to the polls.
Haley has said she's not looking past tomorrow, but if Trump is the GOP nominee, she opened
the door to abandoning her pledge to support the party's choice.
NIKKI HALEY: At the time of the debate, we had to take it to where would you support
the nominee, and you had to -- in order to get on that debate stage, you said yes.
The RNC is now not the same RNC.
Now it's Trump's daughter-in-law.
KRISTEN WELKER, Moderator, "Meet the Press": So you're no longer bound by that pledge?
NIKKI HALEY: No, I think I will make what decision I want to make, but that's not something
I'm thinking about.
LISA DESJARDINS: Her campaign's future and, she says, her party's future, are riding on
how well she performs on Super Tuesday.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.
AMNA NAWAZ: On this Super Tuesday eve, it's a perfect time for some analysis from our
Politics Monday team.
That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR, who
joins us from Raleigh, North Carolina.
And it's great to see you both.
Thanks, as always.
So, Tam, let's start with you.
You're there in North Carolina.
Voters there will vote tomorrow.
You heard from some Republican voters in Lisa's piece there, but what are you hearing from
Democratic voters on the ground about what are the issues that are animating them tomorrow?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: It's really quite interesting.
I was at an early voting location in the area in and around Charlotte.
And I initially would ask voters coming out of their polling place, what issue are you
most passionate about?
What is driving you?
Didn't ask them anything else before that, really was just trying to understand.
And the vast majority of the Democratic voters I spoke to said that abortion and reproductive
rights are their very top issue.
And that reflects the view of Democrats in the state and also the view of the Biden campaign
that this is such a hot issue, so front of mind for voters, Democratic voters especially
here in North Carolina because of some changes and some restrictions that have been added
in the past year, that they believe that puts this state into play.
I spoke with the state's Democratic governor today, and he is insistent that, even though
no Democratic presidential candidate has won this state since 2008, and it was a narrow
margin then, that this state could be in play this time.
AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, briefly, and to that point, the narrow -- the margins can be narrow.
Have you seen any sign of any uncommitted voters in North Carolina similar to the ones
we saw in Michigan?
TAMARA KEITH: Not in terms of a protest vote related to Gaza.
Spoke to a bunch of voters early voting and only one of them even brought up the issue
of Gaza.
Certainly, that doesn't mean that I was speaking to a representative sample of voters, but
certainly did speak to a lot of voters who are not thrilled about their general election
-- their very likely general election choices, voters, Democratic voters who are concerned
about President Biden, but who are saying, well, you know, better than the alternative.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, Amy, it is the single biggest primary contest day.
On the Republican side, here is a look at the latest delegate count, with the last two
remaining candidates there.
You see 244 for Mr. Trump, 43 now for former Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Look, Haley's team has made a big push, right?
They just launched a seven-figure ad deal, TV ad deal.
She won her first primary in D.C., got key endorsements from both Lisa Murkowski and
from Susan Collins, two key Republican senators there.
Could any of that, all of that in some way move the needle for her tomorrow?
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: No.
(LAUGHTER)
AMY WALTER: Anyway -- no, look, the math is just so, so very hard, not just because these
are states where Donald Trump is polling well, but because of how the rules work, that even
if she were able to get 25 or 30 percent of the vote, she's not going to get, in some
cases, any delegates or the same number of delegates that you could get on the Democratic
side.
It's just how this works.
So, sort of back-of-the-envelope projections right now, if things go as the way that polling
suggests they are, by the end of Super Tuesday, Donald Trump is basically 75 percent of the
way there in terms of the number of delegates that he needs.
(CROSSTALK)
AMNA NAWAZ: He needs to get to 1,215.
AMY WALTER: He needs to get to 1,215.
He would be about 75 percent of the way there after Super Tuesday.
AMNA NAWAZ: OK.
AMY WALTER: I think the one thing that we do have to appreciate, there's a lot of attention
Nikki Haley, and understandably so, because there's still officially a contest.
But I think it's important to appreciate too that Donald Trump got to this place where
he is rolling up these kind of margins and can wrap up the nomination this quickly.
I went back and looked where the polls were sitting in April of 2023 or at this point
in 2023.
Less than half of Republicans said they wanted to see him as their nominee.
And here we are, as I said, so close to him wrapping this thing up.
It is quite an important thing to appreciate, not just what the challenger of Donald Trump
is doing, but the fact that he was able to come from such a deficit to where he is now.
AMNA NAWAZ: To be clear, the mathematical path for Haley to 1,215 likely closed after
tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
AMY WALTER: Yes.
AMNA NAWAZ: The math is what it is.
Well, Tam, let's talk about something else big that's happening later this week, because,
of course, the State of the Union address is on Thursday.
President Biden will be delivering that.
And he's got a strong legislative record to talk about, objectively a strong economy to
be talking about, headwinds, as you mentioned, on the Israel-Hamas war front, Ukraine aid,
immigration, for sure, low enthusiasm.
But how do you think the White House is getting ready for this, and how high are the stakes
for this particular State of the Union?
TAMARA KEITH: Well, this State of the Union is essentially the first big speech of the
general election.
After what happens on Super Tuesday, it's going to be very clear to many more Americans
than before that this is going to be a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
It's a rematch a lot of people don't necessarily want.
It's a rematch that even many Democratic voters are concerned about.
And so the stakes are quite high for this speech because the audience is always so big
for a State of the Union and because we always talk so much about a State of the Union.
It's like a -- it's a news cycle.
It's a big one, and especially because, at the last State of the Union, President Biden
got into this back-and-forth with Republicans in the chamber.
And he really, like, jousted with them and came out feeling like a winner.
And it changed the dynamic of Democrats, establishment Democrats, who had been questioning, does
he have the vitality to run for reelection?
After that, those concerns were really quieted for many months.
Now they're back.
And so heading once again into this State of the Union after the special counsel report
drew attention to the president's age and sort of rekindled those concerns, once again,
voters and also more establishment Democrats and others are going to be looking at this
and saying, does he have the fight?
And I spoke to a number of speechwriters and others who say, more than the words that he
says, it's about whether he shows that he is fighting for the American people.
AMY WALTER: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, is this a chance, though, to quiet some of those concerns?
AMY WALTER: Well, I think that is correct, and also the blueprint for going forward and
the contrast.
He obviously -- this is an official speech.
This is not a campaign speech, but to lay out what the goals would be, not just for
the next year, but what really is at stake in the November election in terms of the differences
between the path that President Biden would like to go and the path that Republicans would
like to go.
Obviously, we're also talking about a moment in time where it's pretty clear that Congress
itself has ceased functioning, doing anything.
So, if you're thinking about, as a president, well, what can I talk about, what will happen
in the next year, very little of it is actually going to come through this body that has become
paralyzed, so paralyzed.
And so I will be very curious to see if he's drawing that contrast as well between what's
happening in Congress or not happening in Congress and what he would like to see get
done.
AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, before we go, speaking of things happening in Congress, the battle for
who will replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is already taking shape, when he
steps down from leadership later this year.
We know the minority whip, John Thune, of South Dakota has thrown his hat into the ring.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas has said he will pursue that leadership role.
It's one of the most consequential battles on Capitol Hill.
AMY WALTER: Yes.
AMNA NAWAZ: How are you looking at that?
AMY WALTER: Well, the hardest piece in handicapping this race vs., say, the speaker's race is
that the speaker's race is public.
You see who's casting their ballot.
You do not see that in the race for leader.
This is a secret ballot.
So people can talk, people can make promises out loud, but you will never know who they
actually voted for.
So the influence that, say, a Donald Trump could have or other people could have will
be significant.
I think the biggest question beyond that of what -- people saying what they actually do,
is who the president will be, because, remember, this is an election that will take place after
the election, what the makeup of the Senate will be, and what those folks would like to
see that leader do going forward.
That is probably going to tell us more than what they talk about today as they're campaigning.
AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, we have only got about 15 seconds left.
Quick thoughts on this?
TAMARA KEITH: Yes, well, the big question that I have is that the Johns, as they have
been referred to, have been loyal lieutenants to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
So a question is, will Republicans who have been moving away from Mitch McConnell and
towards Donald Trump want a leader who is closer to McConnell, or are they going to
want to completely shake things up?
Could the dynamic be upended from anything we're expecting?
AMNA NAWAZ: We will wait and see.
Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, great to see you both.
Thank you so much.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
TAMARA KEITH: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: Tonight, we begin a new series, America's Safety Net, on the complicated web
of programs meant to help Americans in need.
Over the coming weeks, we will take an in-depth look at the different forms of welfare in
the U.S.
But, first, with producer Sam Lane, we're going to spend some time explaining what the
American social safety net actually is, who it serves, and how it came to look the way
that it does today.
The year was 1935.
The U.S. was still struggling through the Great Depression.
A quarter of the population was just unemployed, a level the country hadn't seen before and
hasn't seen since.
That August, as part of his New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security
Act into law.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, Former President of the United States: To safeguard the security of
American workers and their families.
GEOFF BENNETT: In addition to the retirement benefits it's now known for, the law laid
a foundation for the government's role in programs like unemployment insurance and cash
assistance for families.
Roosevelt called it a cornerstone in the structure which is being built, but is by no means complete.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: We have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection
to the average citizen and to his family.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the nearly 90 years since Roosevelt signed that law, politicians in
Washington and in statehouses across the country have argued about the best ways to help Americans
who live in and near poverty.
The disagreements have ranged from the dollar amounts of that assistance to how much it
should be tied to work requirements and even to how poverty itself is defined and measured.
During his State of the Union in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced an unconditional
war on poverty in America.
LYNDON JOHNSON, Former President of the United States: Our aim is not only to relieve the
symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.
(APPLAUSE)
GEOFF BENNETT: Johnson's war included the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, a permanent
food stamp program now known as SNAP, and the expansion of Social Security.
At about the same time, the government came up with a uniform way to measure poverty by
comparing a family's income against a national threshold.
In 1959, the poverty rate sat at around 22 percent.
By 1973, it had dropped to 11 percent, roughly where it was in 2022, with almost 40 million
Americans in poverty.
But the measure is widely considered imperfect.
For example, some say the poverty line, about $31,000 for a family of four, is far too low.
So there are other measures that account for things like geography, cost of living, consumption,
or how much government assistance a family gets.
No matter how it's measured, poverty is often misunderstood, says Cornell University professor
Jamila Michener.
JAMILA MICHENER, Cornell University: We tend to think about poverty as more niche and more
limited than it actually is.
And because of that, we can tell ourselves that people living in poverty are very, very
different than people who aren't, that maybe there are some things wrong with them.
A reality and something that people don't know is that, if we take a life course perspective,
a majority of Americans, something approaching 60 percent, depending on when you measure
and how you measure, will experience poverty at some point in their lifetime.
GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.
JAMILA MICHENER: So most people, if you...
GEOFF BENNETT: Sixty percent?
JAMILA MICHENER: Or higher.
It depends on how we measure it.
GEOFF BENNETT: Is the social safety net, then, adequate in terms of meeting the need?
JAMILA MICHENER: What I would say from my perspective as a research expert is a resounding
no.
MATT WEIDINGER, American Enterprise Institute: I would answer yes.
GEOFF BENNETT: Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute,
has a different view.
He helped create this chart of 80-plus programs from food aid to housing to health care that
shows the complexity of the safety net.
He says it can be difficult to track the success of specific programs, but:
MATT WEIDINGER: If you look at nuanced poverty measures that count all the assistance that
taxpayers provide, that count the resources that families themselves have from work, from
relatives, owning their own homes and all that, the level of poverty in the United States
has actually dropped to a relatively low level.
GEOFF BENNETT: As a congressional staffer, Weidinger helped draft the landmark welfare
reform law in the 1990s.
The legislation followed years of anti-welfare sentiment driven by perceptions of rampant
abuse.
In his presidential campaigns, Ronald Reagan popularized the welfare queen stereotype of
people cheating the system to collect benefits.
By 1994, the number of Americans receiving cash assistance did reach its peak at 14 million.
So, in 1996, after a pledge to end welfare as we know it, President Clinton struck a
deal with Republicans in Congress.
It replaced the cash assistance program of the 1930s with Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families.
It imposed time limits and work requirements on welfare and made states responsible for
distributing money.
The number of families on welfare plummeted.
In the years since those reforms, debates have continued over the size and shape of
the social safety net.
MATT WEIDINGER: I'm much more supportive of a work-based safety net, including because
that's what the American people say they want.
It's consistent with how people understand the American dream.
They don't understand the American dream as being something where the government gives
you a big enough check that you can avoid working.
They understand the American dream as helping people go to work, lift their family, rise
over time.
JAMILA MICHENER: It's important to make the social safety net, I think, about what it
is about, which is supporting people in times of need.
And when we try to instead make it about making people work, it can end up not providing them
with the support they need, ironically, with the support they need to work.
Often, we want to do that because there's some sort of principle.
We just want to know that people aren't, like, mooching off the state or that they're working
sufficiently hard.
GEOFF BENNETT: And because the benefits are taxpayer-funded.
JAMILA MICHENER: Yes, although, to be fair, people who are living in or near poverty pay
taxes too.
If you think about it over the long course, many of us are paying in to the social safety
net system and many of us will draw out of that system in our time of need.
GEOFF BENNETT: Before the pandemic, some 99 million Americans, 30 percent of the population,
used at least one of the country's key safety net programs.
Altogether, those programs cost the federal government well over $700 billion.
And that doesn't include all of the money for things like the Affordable Care Act, which
helps tens of millions of Americans access health care.
When President Obama signed the ACA back in 2010, it represented the largest expansion
of the safety net in decades.
Still, despite welfare's reach, almost half of American households struggle to make ends
meet.
And the number is even higher among Black and brown households.
Over the coming weeks, we will bring you the stories of those families and show you what
it's like to navigate America's increasingly complex social safety net.
We explore why up to half the people eligible for benefits don't actually receive them.
WOMAN: It's very time consuming.
They want to know every little penny, every little change in your circumstance.
And any of that could affect you.
GEOFF BENNETT: Why it's so hard to access housing assistance, how safety net benefits
expanded dramatically during the pandemic and poverty plunged, only to rebound when
the policies expired.
WOMAN: I felt like somebody started to feel our pain.
And then they lost all of that.
They forgot all that.
And we were, like, hung out to dry.
GEOFF BENNETT: And what works and doesn't when it comes to alleviating food insecurity
nationwide.
WOMAN: I was digging through my purse trying to find two pennies just to pay the rest of
my SNAP.
I just feel like trash, that I'm here for a free handout, and I'm just nothing to this
country.
GEOFF BENNETT: This is "PBS NewsHour"'s special series America's Safety Net.
And you can watch more stories on America's Safety Net on Mondays here on the "NewsHour,"
and catch up with the series on our YouTube page and Web site.
AMNA NAWAZ: More strong stories ahead.
And we will be back shortly.
But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.
GEOFF BENNETT: It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours
on the air.
AMNA NAWAZ: The gender gap that persists across the highest levels of U.S. government and
business also endures in the art world.
Female artists see fewer acquisitions and exhibitions.
But Washington, D.C.'s National Museum of Women in the Arts exclusively features work
by women.
Here now is an encore report on Jeffrey Brown's museum visit for our arts and culture series,
Canvas.
JEFFREY BROWN: When Petah Coyne was just starting out as a young unknown artist in New York
in the early 80s, both the work and the artist herself took some by surprise.
PETAH COYNE, Artist: When I was doing proposals for other cities, I would write what I wanted
to do, and then they would be at the airport with my name on a sign, and I would get off
and they would go: "Oh.
Oh, we didn't think you were a woman."
And I said: "Oh, you thought I was a man."
"Well, no, we didn't think you were a man, but we didn't think you were a woman."
And I'm like: "OK.
Well, here we are."
JEFFREY BROWN: Today, Coyne's sculptures are shown in major museums around the world, including
here at the newly renovated and reopened National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington,
D.C.
They're extraordinarily labor-intensive, intricate and rich in detail, using a variety of materials,
and, important to Coyne, they take up space.
PETAH COYNE: I just -- I feel like the work has to be big.
And it's all about scale.
If this was small and petite, I think it would look goofy.
It would look like a little Christmas decoration.
I'm not into Christmas decorations.
I'm into, like, I want you to feel what that piece felt like to me.
I want you to walk up near it and have it there in your space, the same way it felt
to me.
JEFFREY BROWN: It's the kind of experience this museum seeks, beginning with a sculpture
that greets the visitor, Niki de Saint Phalle's Pregnant Nana, following a two-year $70 million
overhaul that has opened up its floor plan, enlarged its galleries, and given it the ability
to show and hang larger works.
And it's an experience with a very specific mission, says deputy director and chief curator
Katie Wat.
KATIE WAT, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, National Museum of Women in the Arts: We all
wanted to make a bold statement about women and their creativity.
I think there are conventional ideas about what women artists do or how their art looks.
JEFFREY BROWN: And what is the statement?
KATIE WAT: The statement is that women's creativity is illimitable.
It just doesn't know any bounds or boundaries.
JEFFREY BROWN: The museum, the first in the U.S. solely dedicated to women, was founded
in 1987 by Wilhelmina Cole Holladay in what had been a Masonic temple, ironically a building
from which women were once barred.
As the story goes, on visits to European museums, Holladay and her husband admired the work
of 17th century Flemish artist Clara Peeters, a contemporary of Rembrandt, but were shocked
to find no mention of her in art history books.
They set about to collect art by women, which became the basis for the museum.
Now its galleries are arranged around themes showing how women have tackled certain subjects,
materials, even colors over time.
Artists of the past such as Lavinia Fontana, Frida Kahlo, Berthe Morisot are connected
to contemporaries such as Petrina Hicks, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Faith Ringgold.
There are artists such as Amy Sherald, whom the museum showed before she became well-known
for her portrait of Michelle Obama, and large-scale works by artists including Sonya Clark, Alison
Saar, and Rina Banerjee in a special inaugural exhibition Katie Wat curated titled The Sky's
the Limit.
KATIE WAT: This is a work by the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes.
And it's sort of inspired by the landscape of Rio de Janeiro and Carnival and so forth
in terms of its color and vibrancy the shapes of it and so forth.
It weighs 450 pounds.
JEFFREY BROWN: What you're feeling is that people still don't expect this kind of work,
the scale of work, from women.
KATIE WAT: Yes, I think it's true.
I think there's this idea that women like to work or prefer to work or have a proclivity
toward working on a smaller, more diminutive scale.
We want to blow that idea out of the water with this kind of show.
JEFFREY BROWN: But is a museum dedicated to women's art still needed, as it might have
been in the 1980s, when the art collective Guerrilla Girls were creating their direct-confrontation
advocacy art?
Much has changed.
As seen in exhibitions we featured, including 17th century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi
and contemporary Americans such as Sarah Sze, and for Petah Coyne herself.
You're exhibited in galleries and museums around the country, around the world.
Is it still important for you to have work here in this museum?
PETAH COYNE: Oh, absolutely.
JEFFREY BROWN: Why?
PETAH COYNE: I think it's sad that we have to still have this museum.
This is what's sad.
I am one of the privileged, lucky ones.
I am.
And maybe because I'm Irish and we dig until we die, but I have been blessed, but all those
that are not blessed, I -- and are good -- there are so many good women artists that do not
get airplay.
And it's just -- it's terrible.
So, they -- this museum must exist, and I think it shouldn't be the only one.
JEFFREY BROWN: Coyne and museum officials cite damning statistics, including a recent
survey of 31 U.S. museums showing that just 11 percent of acquisitions and about 15 percent
of exhibitions between 2008 and 2020 were of work by women.
KATIE WAT: I have seen changes over the past couple of years, and they have been very encouraging.
But I don't know if this is a sea change or if this is the swing of the pendulum.
I think that remains to be seen, and so I think our work is still very critical.
JEFFREY BROWN: Is it possible to you to imagine a day when this museum is no longer needed?
KATIE WAT: My hope is that we will reach that day.
I do think, though, that there's always going to be a place for us as sort of the pioneers,
the leaders on this topic, and keeping it in the forefront of folks' mind as we go forward,
leading not just for sort of gender equity in the arts, but all kinds of equity in the
arts.
JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the National Museum of Women
in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
GEOFF BENNETT: Voters in more than a dozen states will head to the polls tomorrow for
Republican and Democratic presidential primaries.
Over one-third of all of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination are up for grabs,
and we will be here covering it all.
NARRATOR: Candidates prepare for Super Tuesday.
Will anyone catch Trump?
NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: He can't focus on delivering the future Americans
deserve.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate:
And I really think this is time now for our country to come together.
NARRATOR: What challenges will President Biden face?
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not
America, not you.
NARRATOR: Voters start making their voices heard.
The 2024 Super Tuesday elections, coverage begins Tuesday, March 5 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern
on PBS.
GEOFF BENNETT: We hope you will join us.
And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.
On behalf of the entire "NewsHour" team, thank you for joining us.