PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 3, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

NPR's Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter join Amna Nawaz to discuss the latest political news, including the Michigan Senate primary and the message Democrats are taking into the midterms, prosecutors dropping Reflecting Pool vandalism charges and President Trump's response. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett is away. On the news hour tonight, two holdout senators agreed to support Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General after he finally puts in writing that the so-called anti-weaponization fund has been scrapped. President Trump says a new round of talks is Iran's last chance to make a deal, as Iran is suspected of multiple cyber attacks against U.S. water systems. The main aim of these operations is to sow chaos, confusion, and fear. It's to say we got in somewhere and think about what we could do next. And we examine how deep divides inside the Democratic Party are playing out in the Michigan Senate primary, and what that means for the general election. Republicans think, regardless of who wins on the Democratic side, they have a chance here. Welcome to the News Hour. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche cleared a major hurdle in his push to permanently lead the Department of Justice

after he reached a deal with two Republican senators who had said they would block his nomination. Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina said they will now officially back Blanche after he put into writing that the DOJ is scrapping a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, one that could have provided settlements to the president's political allies, including January 6th rioters. For more on the agreement, I'm joined now by our justice correspondent, Ali Rogan. So, Ali, how did they reach this deal? And what exactly is in it?

This deal came about after several weeks of talks between Senator Cornyn and the White House. The White House had a lot of resistance. President Trump had openly contemplated withdrawing Blanche's nomination and simply waiting out Senators, Cornyn and Tillis because they lost their primaries a few weeks ago and will be leaving the Senate. But late last night, there was some agreement. Blanche released a new written order rescinding the so-called anti-weaponization fund.

The order is a half a page long and declares that the fund is, quote, rescinded and shall have no force or effect. And it says it establishes, quote, beyond any doubt that there is no fund. Today, Tillis and Cornyn said that Blanche has addressed their concerns and they are ready to support his nomination. And just remind us, why was the fund such a sticking point in the first place for, Senator Cornyn and tell us. Well, this fund was a settlement as part of a lawsuit that President Trump filed against the IRS for leaked tax returns. It got near immediate bipartisan criticism for concerns that it could lead to big payouts

for January 6 rioters. There were also court challenges, and a federal judge blocked the fund from going into effect. And around the time of that court decision, Blanche started saying that the fund was dead, but he wouldn't put that in writing. and that's what senators Tillis and Cornyn were asking for written assurance that the fund would not go forward. There was Omna another part of the IRS settlement that the senators both objected to, and that was a declaration of immunity from tax-related prosecution for President Trump, his family members, and unnamed affiliates, and Cornyn had an issue with the scope of that being so broad.

But Blanche also seemed to walk back that immunity in his latest order, clarifying that it only pertains to President Trump and his family members. Just to be clear, is there anything in this new written deal that would stop January 6 defendants from receiving payouts of some kind or that would prevent the president from reviving the fund? There is nothing in this language that would prevent either of those things from happening, even though the document says that there is no more fund, Trump allies could still claim weaponized prosecutions and seek compensation from other government accounts.

And as of last night, President Trump was defending this fund and talking about it as a very real possibility, as he did last night on Air Force One. Take a listen. These people were dead. And this would be a reimbursement going to pay, then they said, a lot of people like it. They're there. If they don't have them died, put it back on the table. A lot of people like it. A lot of big supporters of Trump like it. But, of course, Anna Trump often sends mixed messages, and today a reporter asked him if there were other avenues that people could pursue to receive payouts like this. And he said there were no other avenues that he knew of. So what about Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee?

What are they saying about all this? Democrats are calling this deal meaningless. Senator Adam Schiff said on a social media post that it, quote, doesn't prevent payouts to violent insurrectionists in the future. It doesn't prevent the administration from bringing the slush fund back. back from the dead next week or using an existing DOJ settlement fund for the same purpose. And shift notes it leaves in place Trump's tax immunity deal. So when it comes to tomorrow's vote, is that now a lock for Todd Blanche? It seems so. The math is there for him to proceed out of committee.

In terms of the full Senate confirmation, it seems like he also has the votes there too. That vote is set to expected to happen on Saturday. Blanche can afford to lose two Republicans. It's a slightly smaller margin than how to spin the case because Senator Mitch McConnell is still out. But the fact that Tillis and Cornyn have gotten on board is a pretty good barometer for other moderate Senate Republicans like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. And Omna, it seems like Todd Lynch is headed towards becoming the next permanent attorney general. All right. That's our justice correspondent. Ali Rogan beginning our coverage.

Ali, thank you. You bet. Today, President Trump said his decision not to escalate the war in Iran, over the weekend was Iran's, quote, last chance to make a deal. He said he called off large-scale strikes because countries in the Gulf asked him to do so. This threatening of new strikes and then calling them off is something the president has done many times over the past few months. Our Nick Schifrin has more. Today on the Strait of Hormuz, it is deja vu. Once again, ship sits stranded. And once again, the commander-in-chief cancels plans to escalate.

But we are talking right now. We're talking, and we're talking at the request of Iran. Over the last few days, it's been another example of Iran whiplash. On Friday, the president and senior aide suggested escalation was imminent. We're going to hit them very hard yesterday, very, very, very hard, harder than any attack, I think I can say general, from a point of knowledge, any attack since World War II. But he now says that Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad B. bin Salman and other regional leaders changed his mind, at least for now. This is the last chance.

This is not something that, if it doesn't happen, this is a last chance for them to sign a good document. U.S. and regional officials tell PBS NewsHour there are talks between the U.S. and Iran and Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran reiterated today, it would never reopen the strait. As long as the current U.S. evil acts continue, as long as the naval blockade of Iran remains in place, there will naturally be no significant development or major change in the situation in the street of Hormoz.

This is not the first time the president has claimed diplomatic progress that Iran has denied, nor the first time he threatened to escalate and backed off. In April, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night. And then two days later, Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield. Across one week in May, we're either going to make a deal or they're going to be decimated. There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. And 24 hours in June. We're going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard.

We found them being rational and they're going to make a deal. And so this question today. Mr. President, this is at least the fifth time you've turned off airstrikes against Iran since April to negotiate. What is your message to the American people? I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We'll see what happens. The U.S. military is still poised to escalate and still implementing a blockade of Iranian ports,

but the president now calls the United States wall of steel. If you do not comply, we will compel compliance with force. This weekend, Central Command redirected dozens of commercial ships disabled two and boarded two others, as the president today predicted quick success. It's not very complex. We're talking about the street, the opening of the strait, having it open literally by tomorrow. And as the U.S. attention remains fixed on the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S.'s Gulf allies increasingly find themselves caught between preventing a wider war,

in protecting their own economic futures. Joining us now is Donia Thephyr, executive director of the Gulf International Forum. Thanks very much. Welcome. Thank you, Nathan. We just watched this presidential, call it back and forth, half a dozen times nearly over the last few months, threatening escalation and then backing off.

How is it affected how the region sees the president and sees the United States? Well, that is a great question. Certainly, from the perspective of the region, they saw that they're, especially the Gulf states, notably, they saw that their security concerns were secondary, and they lobbied very heavily against this war. And so it does put them in a very awkward situation with their most important partner and ally, the U.S. And also with a regional belligerent Iran. Gulf states have obviously had difficult relations with Iran, historically speaking,

but they were well aware of what the consequences of this war was and that it would be a strategic blunder. And so this is the reason why they lobbied against it. So there's a lot of questions circulating about, you know, I wouldn't say the future of U.S. Gulf relations because the Gulf state's grand strategies will generally state with the U.S. but of course they're looking at an international layered approach for defense procurement. So a diversification or sort of hedging, if you will.

A little hedging, yeah. You mentioned how these Gulf states, the U.S.'s Gulf allies, were worried about this war going in. They've been worried about it throughout. And specifically, Saudi officials tell me that the Saudi government, the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been very worried about escalation. He called the president over the weekend. Saudi officials believed that call convinced the president to back off. The president basically said as much.

Why for Saudi Arabia? Why for some of the other countries have they been so worried about this particular escalation right now? Well, we are going into a dangerous phase. Iran has sent warning shots to the Gulf states and to Saudi Arabia specifically. Maybe not directly. They have a degree of plausible liabilities because it came. through the Houthis, through... Iranian-back group in Yemen.

Yes, through the Houthis who are Iranian-back-group in Yemen. And, you know, also from Iraq, Saudi Arabia was attacked. And more noteworthy is also ports near the Suas Canal, which is the other outlet area in which boats can go through. Because there's two choke points in the Red Sea, the Suas Canal and Babelmandam. So basically, the Iranians are sending the message that they will lock them into the Strait of Hormuz. And we've got this map right here, the three choke points that you refer to, the Strait of Hormuz, of course.

But in addition, the Babamandav Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, that's what the Houthis are threatening. And now we have this explosion outside the Suez Canal. What does that triangle, if you will, of maritime choke points? What power does that give Iran and its allies? Well, the Saudi ports were the lungs for the Gulf states in this war. So this is how they were able to bypass the strait of hormones, not only for Saudi Arabia to sell oil, which is incredibly important to the international economy and is critical for Saudi's economy, but also talking about supply chains.

This is the only one of the core areas in which the Gulf states are all receiving their supply chains. So cutting off Saudi Arabia would also be very costly. for the GCC states as well. And this is why Saudi Arabia has been establishing a Red Sea coalition to try to address this with other Gulf states, not all of them, and also with Turkey, with Pakistan, and other coastal states along the Red Sea,

to try to address this. But the overarching issue is that Saudi Arabia wants de-escalation, and the point to Trump is that this is going to be too cost. without any strategic returns. And we've only got about 45 seconds left, so it's a hard question to answer in that time. But at this point, does Iran believe that whether it's those choke points or what we saw with the president going back and forth, that it has leverage? Yes, I think the Iranians think they are winning this war, and they think they have the leverage

and the influence to push and push their will on the war. the Trump administration, the international community, and in fact thinks they can re-establish the regional order in their favor. Donia Thephyr, the executive director of the Gulf International Forum. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me, Nick. Thank you. In the day's other news, firefighters are battling a series of blazes that began this weekend

in Washington state and are continuing to burn in and around Spokane, the state's second most populous city. The fires have breached containment lines. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of buildings have now been destroyed. Stephanie Sy has our report. Thick smoke billowing in the Washington sky, cars, homes, and whole swaths of neighborhoods and flames and left in ashes. Senator Maria Cantwell described the situation in her state. This is the most risk and resourced fire in the United States today. It is the top fire in our nation. More than 600 structures, including homes and businesses, have been destroyed.

I was on the roof. I couldn't see my feet. And I had to feel my way down the ladder because everything just turned black. Eric Frank has lived here for more than 45 years. I don't think I'm going to rebuild here because I don't ever want to have to relive a fire coming up this hill again. Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said officials were still assessing whether the fires had claimed lives. To the people who are suffering right now in our lives, right now in our region from either loss or uncertainty. Everyone here, our hearts go out to you.

We are here for you for the long term. That's gas burning. Some 60,000 residents in the Spokane area have been evacuated, hundreds finding shelter with the Red Cross. Bob Ferguson, Washington's governor, said recovery would be long for many. There are just so many Washingtonians who have literally lost everything in a very, very short period of time. Just in a matter of hours, their lives changed in deeply dramatic and fundamental ways. My dad had actually just finished paying off the house. Yeah. He worked really hard for that.

And I'm really grateful for everything that he was able to provide for my family. Crews are technically battling three fires, the Autumn Lane, Fairview, and Old Trails Fire. Together, called the Spokane Complex Fire, it's already torn through more than 7,000 acres. Satellite imagery from NOAA shows the magnitude of the fires and smoke affecting the northwest. We wanted us to evacuate, but the waves were crashing, the wind was blowing, it was smoky. Figured we were safer to stay and butt our beach. High temperatures, dry air and strong winds have made for extraordinary wildfire conditions. firefighters from neighboring states are helping in the effort.

This wasn't enough rigs with how many fires we had going and how large the fire got help with how quick it was. It was jumping through multiple neighborhoods. Nobody is capable of handling that in this country. Cooler temperatures today and tomorrow offer hope that firefighters can start to contain the fires, which are being called Spokane's worst natural disaster to date. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Sye. Also today, health officials in Michigan reported the first deaths in the U.S. related to a cyclosporiasis outbreak. According to a statement, quote, both individuals had significant underlying health conditions that may have been impacted by cyclosporiasis and dehydration.

The officials add that the intestinal parasite disease is not usually considered life-threatening. The CDC has confirmed some 6,700 cases nationwide since early May, though Michigan alone has reported more than, 11,000 suspected cases. More than two dozen states, nearly all led by Democrats, are suing the Trump administration over its latest tariffs. Last month, the government announced double-digit levies on 60 trading partners, saying they'd not done enough to crack down on imports produced by forced labor. The new tariffs took effect just as prior ones expired.

In their lawsuit, the states argue the president exceeded his authority and is trying to replace tariffs that the Supreme Court struck. down earlier this year. They're asking the U.S. Court of International Trade to halt the tariffs and refund duties paid by the states. Officials in southern Ukraine say Russia dropped eight glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes last night, killing at least one person and wounding dozens more. The attacks damaged residential buildings and a warehouse complex in the southern city of Zaporizia. Meantime, Russia says two separate attacks by Ukrainian forces killed at least nine people nationwide. Also today, Ukraine's president, Lodemir Zelensky, announced military cooperation

deals with nine countries, and he continued to shake up his top ranks, dismissing Ukraine's ambassador to the United States and announcing the top negotiator Rustem Umerov would lead the Foreign Intelligence Service. Firefighters in Greece are battling a major blaze outside Athens for a fourth straight day. Strong winds returned to fan the flames and a major highway was closed. Authorities say that areas around the city remain at high risk throughout the week with temperatures set to rise. Water-dropping flights were able to resume today after a mid-air helicopter collision killed two crew members on Sunday. In the meantime, the UK's weather service says a long heat wave and lack of rain led to the driest July in England and Wales in nearly two

centuries. All of Wales and more than half of England are now officially in drought. Mauricio Pucatino is staying on as coach of the U.S. men's soccer team through the 2030 World Cup. The 54-year-old signed a four-year deal after guiding the team to a record three wins in this year's tournament. The team fell to Belgium in the round of 16, but managed to drive up enthusiasm for the sport nationwide. Also today, the European soccer body, UEFA, threatened lawsuits against the international overseeing group, FIFA, for the now canceled proposal to sell commercial stakes in the World Cup to private investors. UAFA threatened to boycott the World Cup if the plan went forward and has led calls to replace FIFA President Gianni Invantino.

The world's third smallest country, the Pacific Island of Nauru, has changed its name in a return to its roots. The country's president says the new name, the Republic of Nauero, stays truer to its national language rather than Nauru, which was considered easier for foreigners to pronounce. The country's international code will also change from N-R-U to NRO, and its people will now be known as the De Naurero instead of Nauru-en. It's the latest nation to change its name, joining countries like Turquille and Eswatinny, which is formerly Swaziland. In movie news, Spider-Man Brand New Day now holds the box office record for the country. for the biggest opening weekend in North America.

The latest installment of the web-slinging series brought in $360 million across the U.S. in Canada, topping another Marvel outing, Avengers Endgame. Spidey also teamed up with The Odyssey to help set a record weekend overall for theaters. Despite years of decline in theater-going, the movie industry is enjoying a strong 2026, with one estimate showing ticket sales up roughly 15% over last year.

Today was the first official trading day for financial firms and others to get early access to Donald Trump's truth social posts. That is if they signed up to a new subscription service from Trump Media and Technology Group, which went live this weekend. Subscribers can pay up to $100,000 per month to get truth social posts from Trump and other top accounts before general users do. Critics say the arrangement raises questions about insider trading. The company has dismissed such concerns. Elsewhere on Wall Street today, stocks rallied as oil prices cooled. The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped nearly 700 points. The NASDAQ added more than 2%.

The S&P 500 closed just below a record set earlier this summer. Anne Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, has died. She was the mayor of Fort Worth in the early 1990s. before her election to Congress in 1996, where she stayed for nearly three decades. As a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee, she focused on defense spending, including production of the F-35. Lockheed Martin assembles the fighter jet in her former district. Granger was the first Republican woman to chair that committee.

She didn't run for re-election in 2024 as her health declined. Granger's son said she died from Alzheimer's. K. Granger was 83 years old. Still to come. On the NewsHour, Congressman Max Miller faces accusations of domestic violence as his former father-in-law calls for his resignation. Divides inside the Democratic Party play out in the Michigan Senate primary. And Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington,

headquarters of PBS News. Well, according to the FBI, at least seven states have now been targeted in a growing wave of cyber attacks on critical water infrastructure across the country. Federal officials are reportedly investigating Iran as the likely culprit. Liz Landers has the latest on this story. Amna, the coordinated attacks follow urgent warnings issued last month by cybersecurity agencies who said Iran was actively targeting water and energy infrastructure nationwide. In Minnesota, officials said at least. 30 municipal water systems were hit. Utilities providers across the country are now scrambling to beef up their security. For more, we're joined by Cynthia Kaiser. She is former deputy assistant

director of the FBI Cyber Division and a senior vice president at the Cybersecurity Company, Halcyon. Cynthia, thank you for joining NewsHour. Thank you for having me. What do we know so far about these attacks? What kind of damage were they able to do? And who is being targeted here? attackers have been breaking into the small computers that run America's water system. And a very small number of cases, there have been some disruptive actions. Now, FBI and EPA have reported that utilities in at least seven states have known incidents that are of similar kind of severity, which shows just how broad this issue really is. So far, federal authorities have not linked this to any specific actor.

Who do you think is behind this attack? I would be shocked if Iran wasn't behind this attack. When I was at the FBI, we looked at several different aspects when we were thinking about attribution, especially initially in a campaign. One was, have we seen this type of targeting recently? The answer here is yes. Just a week ago, FBI and SISA, as well as a host of other U.S. government agencies, put out an urgent warning saying that Iran was continuing to target these mini computers that control much of our critical infrastructure, including water infrastructure. The second aspect we looked at on attribution was, do they have a motive to do it now?

Is the attack actually for money or is it for disruptive actions? This appears focused on disruption, not money, and geopolitically, the actor that has the main motive here is Iran. And then third, we would look at who just has a longer history of doing these types of attacks and is willing to cross that red line of targeting critical infrastructure. The answer here also is Iran. Going back several years, they've conducted attacks against these many computers at these facilities, including just kind of stopping at these disabilities, including just kind of stopping at these devices and not going further, which is what's occurring in this operation here. So we should all be moving forward, assuming it's Iran, because there isn't really a plausible other scenario. Why would Iran want to target these kinds of municipal water systems?

Iran wants to target these types of municipal water systems because they just want to get into anywhere. The main aim of these operations is to sow chaos, confusion, and fear. It's to say we got in somewhere and think about what we could do next. So when you look at all of these different types of targets, they're going after the ones that they have the ability to get into. And oftentimes that is the smaller municipalities, these smaller locations, water systems, because they lack the funding or the IT personnel to be able to fully secure them. On Friday, the president blamed the state of Minnesota and its governor Tim Walls for the attacks, calling them grossly incompetent and corrupt. Is that a fair criticism? The FBI itself has noted that at least seven states have been impacted.

And even since Friday, Michigan has come out saying that they've also been victims, or at least targeted, as a part of this attack. So it really is broader than the state of Minnesota. Just how vulnerable is our country's infrastructure to these sorts of attacks, especially to the local utility systems? The truth of the matter is that our, especially our why, facilities are very vulnerable to attack. And that should be scary because everybody depends on water. When I was in the FBI and policymakers asked me which sector I was most worried about, it was water

because they lack the funding. They lack the IT personnel necessary. And they're run by these small municipalities. They just don't have that full resources, which means the attackers are able to get into something. It may not be everything, but something within those systems. And if those systems goes down, we have a lot of problems across our communities. The Trump administration has fired nearly a third of the employees at the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, SISA. And they're proposing to cut hundreds of millions of dollars more from the budget next year. That agency typically maintains those relationships between the state, local, and federal

governments and some of the infrastructure of those various places. Have those cuts impacted the United States' ability to counter these kinds of threats? Does this worry you? What I really get worried when we're talking about cuts is not the big events. Whenever there's been a big event historically, like throughout all of these cyber operations, the FBI, SISA, NSA, everybody is able to pull together, push resources towards that and ensure Americans are safe. But if there aren't an additional personnel, what happens to the other types of operations

that are happening every day? What do we miss? I think that's the first concerning aspect. But the second doesn't necessarily have to do assist it at all. It's the need to renew the funding for state and local cybersecurity grants that all of these municipalities are dependent on to be able to have the right kind of cybersecurity. It's with the Senate now to act, but it will lapse if it's not renewed by this fall. Cynthia Kaiser, thank you for your expertise. Thank you. Ohio's senior U.S. Senator is calling for an Ohio congressman who is also his former son-in-law to drop his reelection bid and resign from office. In his social media post yesterday, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno called Republican Representative Max Miller, quote,

a danger to my daughter, writing, quote, I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. Moreno had been publicly silent over the past couple of years as allegations and messy divorce proceedings swirled around Miller and Moreno's daughter, Emily. Senator Moreno's comments followed a live video from Miller over the weekend, addressing accusations from his former wife that he abused her and their child. No criminal charge has ever been filed against me. My former wife is engaging in a pattern of reporting incredible, serious, and destructive allegations. with absolutely no evidence. Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin joins us now with more.

So Lisa, let's start with the accusations being made against Max Miller. What do we know? Some of these accusations go back years. Some are from this year. And I should note, this is not the first time a woman has accused Max Miller of domestic abuse and he has denied it. In this case, it is his ex-wife, Emily Marino. She has not spoken publicly, but court documents and photos published by the Daily Mail

details some very serious abuse allegations. She says that he, in different times, pushed her, pushed her against her wall, bruised her, held a gun to her head, and at one point doused her with hot water from a sink. Now, Congressman Miller denies all of that adamantly. He says the sink incident was horseplay, and the rest of them, he says, were invented. There's also an incident with their young two-year-old daughter in which her collarbone was broken while she was in his custody. Emily Marino did not accuse him of that abuse, but did raise concerns. Mr. Miller put out documents over the weekend showing the findings of a local investigation,

which declared that this was an unsubstantiated allegation. He says the daughter was in a nanny's care at the time of that injury. This document is one of dozens that Max Miller has put out in his defense. And why is all of this spilling out into the public now? Why is Senator Marino weighing in on this now? Right. This does go back months, but after that collarbone incident, Emily Marino filed to change their shared custody agreement. Then, shortly after, Miller won his May primary, then the Daily Mail article came out about these abuse allegations.

Following that, we now had Senator Marino not weighing in. Why is he changing now? Well, speaking to someone who's involved, he says over the weekend, they realized that Congressman Miller was ramping up his attacks on his daughter, Emily Marino, and that as a father, he had to weigh in. And until that point, they say Emily Marino had asked him not to. Now he felt he had to speak up. So these custody proceedings are playing out in the courts. But what do domestic violence advocates say about all of this? This is a high conflict divorce. This is complicated in almost every case, even when there aren't members of Congress involved.

But a particular facet here is Congressman Miller's defense. He is trying to point the finger back at his ex-wife. He has raised things that says she offered to make him food at the time of these abuse allegations that she said he was kind. On one hand, he says that shows she was different in private than her public accusations imply. But domestic abuse experts say it's not that simple. We spoke to Joan Meyer of the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University. Those are the kinds of claims that are very commonly made by alleged abusers. And they can get traction because they seem counterintuitive. Why would someone who's been violently assaulted?

be being nice to their violent assaulter. The problem is that takes it out of context. Separately, we spoke to the national domestic violence. Hotline, they said this is still a major issue in the country. They get 3,000 calls for help a day. Obviously, there's serious allegations here, as you point out, there's a child at the heart of all of this, but there are political implications, given the people here.

What should we know about that? Congressman Miller is in a vulnerable Republican seat, and now Democrats think it may be even more vulnerable, but it also comes in a year with pattern. with patterns of these kinds of stories. For example, Graham Platner in Maine, as I'll remember, had to pull out of that Senate race after past allegations of abuse.

You see three congressmen there, two of them resigned after sexual misconduct allegations, and then in the middle one, Corey Mills, who still faces those kinds of allegations. There are now calls for an ethics investigation into Congressman Miller. He says he is not resigning, but those ethics investigations, we know, take time.

Finally, Lisa, we know that you have just returned from a key state in this midterm election year, Michigan. What should we know? This was fascinating. We found Democrats in Michigan wrestling over an absolutely critical and intense Senate race. Their primaries tomorrow between two candidates who both say they're underestimated, but it's really about how Democrats try to win and who they want to be. In Michigan, is this a phase or is this the future?

All right, y'all, money out up? On this. Money in your? Market. Medicare for it? It just shouldn't be his heart. Abdul Al-Sayed is many things. A Michigan native, a Rhodes Scholar with a medical degree, and a former public health director.

Vigour is his brand. A progressive who's never held office before, he is banking on enthusiasm. He's authentic. He doesn't owe anything. He's not representing anyone but the people. He's not just like, hey, I'm pushing the same buttons as everyone else. He's actually like, hey, this is messed up. We've got to fix this.

It's. Battling him is Congresswoman Haley Stevens. We all know we're a swing state, and we're going to win baby November. Her brand is hard worker, can do. As in 2018, when she flipped a Republican district to win her U.S. House seat, or in 2009, when she helped run President Obama's auto bailout. Stevens leans in on her record and her Michigan accent. I have this community's back.

I have this state's back. I'm going to lead in the way we need and deserve. I'm going to stick it to them. Her supporters say she's the one who can win in the fall. There's no contest. She has a proven record. Fight her for the working man or woman. She really stands up for that. One party choosing from two different directions. I've got friends on both sides. And they feel strongly. And they feel very strongly about their choice. In the Detroit suburbs, Cindy Groney is highly engaged. She volunteers and campaigns with the local Democratic Party, and she's supporting Stevens. I feel strongly that she's the right choice.

One is her policies, and the other is I feel she has the best chance of winning the race once the primary is over. How important is that? I think it's critical. The state is a purple state, and I think it's going to be close. Polling backs that up. A recent Michigan education poll found Stevens neck and neck with Republican Mike Rogers. He's a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate race two years ago and has President Trump's endorsement.

In the same poll, Abdul Al-Sayed trailed Rogers by 10 points. It is I past time for us to show up and start taxing billionaires. They're well. But Al-Sahed says this misses his momentum. The way you win is to bring more voters to the coalition and to win some of these folks who want a politician who's not bought off. I'll also tell you this, that, you know, to beat somebody like Mike Rogers, you actually have to offer a contrast. If you need $60 million as my Democratic opponent has taken to barely be competitive in a primary, tell me how you're electable again.

This is one of the most expensive Senate primaries in history, fueled not just by divide over the Democratic Party's direction, but by one high-stakes debate over Israel and Gaza. She's fighting back against Trump's Medicare cuts. This ad may not mention the Middle East, but the Super PAC involved is focused. focused on it. Tied to A-PAC or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the group has spent more than $30 million for Stevens and against El-Said. That's the real Abdul El-Said. The outside spending is sparking wide backlash. At the same time, Democrats are divided over

Gaza. El-Sayed sharply criticizes America's role in providing weapons to Israel. Anti-Semitism is a scourge and we must stand up against it. But this is about love for the people who go without those basic things in America. So how dare we ask how we're going to pay for improvements to our schools or health care while we don't bat an eyelash to sending $3.3 billion of our taxpayer money to a foreign government doing genocide and apartheid. Alina Malick's a rising senior at the University of Michigan studying business. While home for the summer, El-Sayed inspired her to Canvas for the first time.

I was definitely scared going into it, but it was really nice. A core issue for her, the APAC and corporate money in this race. I didn't realize how campaigns were funded and how they can be funded by these corporate political action committees and how that can affect the policies that are made. You know, I'd love a constitutional amendment to get rid of money in politics. Stevens has responded, as we saw at the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Lansing. We're in a moment of reckoning, you know, and it's cheap shots to say, oh, we're. well, you know, we can't have nice things because of this and that, you know, a super PAC, which, yes, that's garbage that we have this dark money.

You said very clearly, and you've been clear, you want to reform, you don't campaign finance reform. Why not tell Super PACs not to use your name? Why not openly reject the dark money and outside money that's helping you? Well, the Republicans certainly wouldn't be listening to that. So, you know. I mean, I'd love to tell the Republican super PACs. not to donate or not to do a super pack.

Stumping for Stevens is Zach Nessel. He's secretary of the state Democratic Jewish caucus and the son of the state's attorney general. He says the APAC focus is misguided. They support her because she supports Israel and she always has been. It's not that she owes them anything. It's that she has been, their values are aligned.

This divide isn't new, but Democrats criticizing Israel and those pushing left are notching up, recent gains, like Democratic Socialists Zara Mamdani's win in New York City. Here in Michigan, a recent poll shows El-Said with a 16-point lead over Stevens, winning big with independents likely to vote in the race. They open like all with us. Matt Grossman is a political science professor at Michigan State and co-owns hooked a bookstore in Lansing.

Democrats are competitive now in Texas, in Iowa, in Alaska, in Ohio. This shouldn't be the competitive state, certainly to determine. the outcome of the U.S. Senate. But I think Republicans think regardless of who wins on the Democratic side, they have a chance here. Grossman also says the general election could get ugly, particularly if Republicans run against El-Said, who'd be the first Muslim senator in history. He's fighting for what people want, and so I think that will make people, you know, see past the racism and, you know, the superficial things like his name and his identity. If Stevens wins, Alina Malik will probably vote for her over the Republican. I think it goes back to kind of choosing the luster of two evils. I don't have any real negatives towards Abdul, but I would like to see him hold another

elected job before he made a huge move to the Senate. But even so, Stevens supporter Cindy Groney says she will definitely vote for El Saeed if he is on the fall ballot. My concern is both sides, Abdul supporters, Haley supporters will not vote for the other if they win. And that would not result in Democrats retaining this Senate seat. This is a classic Michigan hard political fight, a test of Democrats divide and their ability to quickly reunite.

For the PBS News Hour, I'm Lisa Desjardin in Lansing, Michigan. Well, for more now on tomorrow's midterm primary races, we turn to our politics Monday duo. That is Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. It's great to see you both. Good to be here. Let's pick up where Lisa left off in Michigan, the defining issues in that Senate primary. She's got the moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens and the progressive Abdul al-Said running to take on the presumptive Republican nominee Mike Rogers. Amy, for Democratic primary voters here seems to be at issue of which,

direction they want to see the party go, or which candidate, I think, can actually win in November. Is that fair? I do think that's fair. And I think Haley Stevens was a great example of the kind of candidate that could win in the first Trump midterm election. She was part of the establishment at a time when people thought the establishment and institutions were going to be the answer to Trumpism. She came from working in the Obama White House.

she was somebody who was going to stand up, all of those things that Democrats believed Trump was knocking over. In the eight years since then, what many Democratic voters have seen is that standing up for what they thought were universal values of democracy, of institutions, and of norms

is no longer as powerful. And that those institutions and norms didn't protect the country from a second Trump election. And so where you see Democrats now is very similar to where Republicans were at this point in, say, 2014 or even in 2010 when they believed that the Republican leadership was not properly reacting to the election of President Obama, and they needed a new direction to go. So she will run, and she's continuing to run on, I'm the electable candidate, but I think for many voters in many, Michigan, what they're saying is we don't need to play it safe anymore, because playing it safe is really what got us Donald Trump back.

And, Tam, we have already seen the Republican, Mike Rogers here, release an attack ad before he even knows who he's running against, against Abdul Al-Sayed. He's sort of depicting him as a Trojan horse who will bring communism to Michigan. We should point out that Al-Sahed doesn't identify as a Democratic socialist, but he has several backing him. Where do you make up that line of attack? I think we're going to see a lot of it. That is a line of attack that we're going to see all over the country, whether the Democratic

candidates are actually aligned with Democratic socialists or not, because that is one of the ways that Republicans have keyed in on to say, oh, those other guys, they are way too extreme for you. And, you know, they're after this sort of narrow piece of the pie of voters who are actually persuadable. And so, you know, what you have to do to convince a persuadable voter is to disqualify the other party. And so absolutely, this race is going to be, if I'll say Ed moves on to the general election, it is going to be like a pretty perfect test of can a populist progressive outsider win in a swing state? And Mike Rogers is some people I've been talking to. to, in the state, have described him as sort of a plain vanilla Republican. He's not, he's not

a flamethrower. He's obviously endorsed by President Trump. He's campaigned with President Trump. But he's sort of a mainline Republican. And so you're going to see what happens when Democrats, if El Ceyed is the nominee, nominate someone who is considered a little bit more of a risk, who has taken some positions on social issues, not what he's campaigning on, but has taken some positions that could be portrayed as extreme. And, you know, progressives are watching this and saying, hey, this is our chance. If he can win in the general election, then we can convince well-meaning,

you know, electability voters that come 2028, they should vote with their hearts and not with their heads. Yes. And let's also be clear that President Trump is so much more unpopular in Michigan today than he was in 2024. So the actual electorate looks a lot different today than it did in 24 or than it will in 28.

And there's an issue, Lisa, point. pointed out in her reporting as well that is coming up in this election that hasn't as strongly in previous as the funding from APAC in particular We see it as a as a factor in this primary We also seeing it in Missouri where there also there's a primary there for the first congressional district and that race is a rematch between the progressive Cory Bush and the moderate Wesley Bell two years ago Bush lost to Bell blamed her loss on APAC's spending there But Lisa's reporting shows this is something voters are paying attention to you why is yeah? Yeah, I think what they're paying attention to, it's less the issue of Israel, though the issue of Israel looks very different today to Democratic voters than it did a few years ago because of the war in Gaza.

So I think already you've seen the shift in opinions of Israel among Democrats going down significantly. And then the issue of corruption now being front and center and of money in politics being part of that corruption message. When you hear the term APAC now in the way, especially in Michigan, the way that El-Sahed talks about it, is the corrupting power of money, right? These are donors who are spending millions and millions of dollars to bring someone to Washington. I'm not going to take that money, much more so than this is a debate

between the two of them over Israel. Yeah, and this is something that we've seen in other primaries all over the country. We saw it in Illinois. We saw it in New Jersey. And APEC money has become sort of a, just like a phrase that, that represents money and politics, outside influence.

And we have to say that this comes at a time when the war in Iran is unpopular. And many of these candidates are on the Democratic side linking it to an economic message. They are saying the money should be spent in America on health care and food and housing and not on a foreign war that we don't agree with or supporting Israel, which we don't agree with. It is very much linked to that economic message in a way that may make it more resonant than just like talking about foreign policy, which typically does not move elections in America. Meanwhile, I want to ask you about something we've seen from the president in the last few days. He went on another sort of spree posting on Truth Social on Saturday, about 40 or so posts within an hour or so, ranging from AI-generated images of himself, hinting at a U.S. takeover of Greenland or making Venezuela the 50, state, also a rebuke of his U.S. attorney Janine Piro, who's long time been an ally of his.

That, as you both know, followed Piro and the DOJ dropping charges on Friday against a man they accused of vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the damage in their filing was because of hasty installation and renovation, not because of vandalism. We should note prosecutors just today really actually pulled back more cases related to vandalism there, so they're dropping those charges. President Trump continues to insist it was vandalism, even today in the Oval Office. Here's what he had to say. And I was disappointed with Janine Piro, really disappointed with Janine Piro.

She folded like an umbrella. Tam, explain to us why the president is doubling down on this and also reports that he could drop Janine Piro now. Because the president doubles down on everything. The reflecting pool was an embarrassment for him. It was supposed to be this glorious American flag blue repairing something that Obama couldn't repair. And it became a metaphor, a really unfortunate metaphor for the president with green algae and paint peeling. And he rapidly started blaming vandalism. And it wasn't just once.

He blamed vandalism at least 20 times by my count. And the length of the gash that he said that the vandals put in the sealant got longer and longer and longer. it was like 250 feet, then it was 300 yards, it got longer and longer. The reality is he does not ever apologize. He never looks back. He always doubles down, even if in court filings, the truth matters, which is different than the court of public opinion, which is his realm. Right, and that's what the really important point, which is you can say whatever you want on true social.

You can make claims that are outrageous. in the public square, when you come in front of a federal judge, you cannot make those same comment, not only because you will lose your case, but you could also be held in contempt if you're actually lying, knowingly lying to a judge. So the stakes are much higher for somebody who's actually arguing that case than for Donald Trump who can actually just needle the person who's supposed to be arguing the case. Standards for evidence are higher as well. Those things. I didn't go to law school, but I've heard such thing. Nor did I. Yeah. Amy Walter. Tamara and Keith, great to start the week off with you, Bo. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You're welcome. And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm Omna Navaz. On behalf of the entire News Hour team, thank you for joining us.