PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 17, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Wednesday on the News Hour, President Trump gets his worst economic approval ratings ever in a new PBS News poll as Americans worry about affordability. Some House Republicans buck party leadership, forcing a vote to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. Plus, we catch up with a transgender teen and her parents, who left Texas because of the state's ban on transgender health care for minors. 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. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, President Trump gets his worst economic approval ratings ever in a new PBS news poll, as Americans worry about affordability. House Republicans buck their party's leadership, forcing a vote to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and stave off a spike in health care premiums. We speak to two lawmakers seeking a bipartisan solution. You understand how Congress works. Unfortunately, we don't govern by leadership. Yeah, we govern, we don't govern by leadership, we govern by crisis. And therefore, it's a day-by-day situation.

And we catch up with a transgender teen and her parents who moved out of Texas because of the state's ban on transgender health care for minors. I heard so, so, so much from the kids at school and just from people in Texas in general that I started to question, am I the problem? Welcome to the News Hour. President Trump is set to address the nation tonight to tout the work of his administration and look ahead to his priorities in the new year. The speech comes as economic concerns continue to be a top priority for Americans.

In a new PBS News NPR, Maris poll, 57% of respondents say they disapprove of the job the president's doing on the economy. 36% think he's doing a good job. It's the lowest approval rating he's seen on the issue in either of his terms in office. For more insights from the poll, I'm joined now by NPR's senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Good to see you. Hey, great to be with you. Let's talk about the president's handling of the economy.

Tell us about that drop in support and who exactly is losing confidence in the president. I mean, this is a big deal. 36% of people approve of the job that the president is doing when it comes. to the economy. This is the lowest number that he's ever seen in the Marist poll as far as how he's handling the economy. And this was a relative strength of his in his first term as president. And this is a big deal because he promised to bring down prices during the 2024 election. It's a big reason you could argue that a lot of voters crossed over to vote for him. In particular, Latino voters who, you know, repeatedly said that prices, affordability were huge

issues for them as a reason why they voted for Trump. We've seen all year that they've They've slid away from him, whether it's been in special elections, the elections earlier in November. And in this poll, only 32% approve of the job that he's doing on the economy. It's exceedingly low. It's a really bad, low point for this president. And it's why you see him now starting to get out on the trail trying to make the case on the economy, even though he continues to veer into culture issues like immigration.

You mentioned those special elections. We've seen affordability become the central message for Democrats so far, heading into this next midterm election year. What do Americans think about the handling of the economy? Well, right here, now we're starting to see that Democrats have a four-point advantage when it comes to which party would be better to handle the economy, 37 to 33 percent. That doesn't seem like a huge advantage, but traditionally Republicans have a bigger advantage on the economy than Democrats do, and it's a 20-point turnaround from 2022 when Republicans

had a 16-point edge on this. And of course, in a midterm, you know, did much better than Democrats. did overall. That's a huge swing. Okay, on the issue of affordability, prices remain the number one concern for 45% of Americans. That tops all other issues like housing and tariffs and job security. But how do people view the economy personally right now? Yeah, and prices obviously leap out and is as the biggest issue. But when it comes to how people are feeling about this, 70% of people say that their area where they live is not affordable for average families. And that's up from 45% just this summer. So a lot of people are feeling the pinch, whether it's of prices or

housing. Obviously, in neighborhoods, people are going to feel that interest rates and all of that. But, you know, that's a big number when 7 and 10 people are saying that just their area is just simply not affordable. And look, presidents get way more blame and credit than they deserve when it comes to the economy. But with this president, because of what he's done on tariffs, a lot of people are blaming him for that, and they're saying that that's less. led to an increase in these prices, and it should put Republicans in a terrible vortex of being viewed negatively politically. We asked how the economy is working for you.

Is it working well? 61% of people said that it is not working well for them personally. And when you dig inside the numbers, there were huge divides by race, gender, age, and, of course, on income. We know tariffs, cost of living, prices are all an issue here. Health care is another big issue for people. We know those expanded subsidies under the Affordable Care Act are set to expire at the end of the month. We don't yet know what Congress will or can do on the issue, but how confident are people that they can pay for their health insurance?

Not very. I mean, we saw a majority. I don't know this really jumped out. A majority of people, 54% said that they're concerned, that they're worried that in the next 12 months they won't be able to pay for needed health care or medical procedures. That's a very big number, especially considering millions of people in this country have big amounts of out. outstanding medical debt. You know, some 20 million people have more than $250 a month that they owe. 14 million people, more than $1,000 a month, according to a KFF-P Peterson Health Tracker analysis. So millions of people are worried about their health care. We're also seeing in Congress right now these ACA subsidies, the Affordable Care Act subsidies, that could lapse, and that could mean even higher health care for a lot of people who buy premiums

on the Obamacare exchanges. Setting aside how they see it personally, how do Americans feel about the overall economy right now? They don't see it very well at all. It's just the same theme. I feel like throughout with everything, people have a very dim outlook of the economy. Majority of people are concerned about what is going to come for the world in 2026. 57% said that. 63% say that the country is off on the wrong track and just a lot of people feel like they're not able to get by right now. 70% of people said that their income either exceeds or matches what their expenses are. people, a quarter of people on our poll, said that their expenses exceed their income.

That means if you calculate that out, some 46 million people in this country are going month to month accruing debt. Some striking numbers in the poll. Full results are online. Domenico Montanaro. Always great to see you. You got it. where the surviving suspect in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach has been charged with 15 counts of murder,

one for each of the victims, and 59 charges in all. It comes as hundreds gathered to mourn at the first funerals today for the victims. Among them, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a father of five, and an organizer of Sunday's Hanukkah event where the shooting took place. The youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda, whose last name was withheld. immigrated with her parents from Ukraine to escape the war. Her funeral will be held tomorrow. The oldest killed 87-year-old Alex Klytman, who was also a native of Ukraine and a Holocaust survivor. He died shielding his wife from harm. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified privately to lawmakers

today and reportedly said his investigators developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump criminally conspired to overturn the 2020 election. According to press reports, Smith also told lawmakers in his closed deposition that the president repeatedly tried to obstruct government efforts to recover classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort. Smith had asked to testify publicly, something President Trump has said he supported. House Judiciary Republicans, however, rejected that request. The U.S. Senate today passed a massive defense bill, even as it's causing some friction with the White House and Pentagon. Inside the National Defense Authorization Act is a record $901 billion, including a nearly 4 percent of the U.S.

pay raise for troops. At odds with the administration, the 3,000-page bill pressures Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth to turn over unedited footage of an alleged drugboat strike from September. The bill also reigns in the president's ability to limit troop numbers abroad and authorizes more U.S. money for weapons to Ukraine. Warner Brothers' discovery has urged its shareholders to reject Paramount Skydances hostile bid to purchase the company with an all-cash-offer valued at over $108 billion. The board instead recommended sticking with a $72 billion bid from Netflix. In that letter to shareholders, Warner Brothers said Paramount's offer relied too heavily

on borrowed money and carried significant risks and costs. Paramount defended its direct offer as a superior value, and the decision ultimately rests with shareholders who have until January 8th to vote on Paramount's offer. Separately, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the Oscars will move online exclusively to YouTube starting in 2029, leaving broad TV for the first time ever and leaving ABC where it's been shown for the last five decades. Senators threw sharp questions at FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr during his first congressional appearance since the agency pressured broadcasters to remove ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves earlier this year.

What government cannot do is force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly. Commerce Committee Chairman, Texas Republican, Ted Cruz had previously called Carr's comments, quote, dangerous as hell. Today, Democrats pressed Carr on whether he was politicizing an independent agency. Just so you know, Brendan, on your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC's independent. This isn't a trick question. Okay, the FCC is not, is not, is not an independent. So is your website wrong?

Is your website line? Possibly. The FCC is not an independent agency. During that hearing, the FCC's website changed, removing the word independent. from its mission statement. Also, on Capitol Hill, the Senate voted 67 to 30 to confirm Jared Isaacman to be NASA's next administrator. The billionaire tech entrepreneur and close ally of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was tapped twice for the role.

President Trump pulled his nomination earlier this year amid his public falling out with Elon Musk, only to renominate him last month. That says FBI deputy director Dan Bongino says he will resign his post next month. The former Secret Service agent was previously a right-wing podcasting personality. He hasn't shared his future plans. During that time, he spread provocative conspiracy theories, including about the Epstein files and the investigation into the D.C. pipe bomber. It was an across-the-board sell-off on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had the smallest loss of the day at nearly half a percent. The NASDAQ fell by more than 400 points or nearly 2 percent, and the S&P 500 dropped to its fourth straight loss. And the bodies of two fallen Iowa National Guard soldiers who were killed in Syria returned to U.S. soil today. Sergeant's William Nathaniel Howard and Edgar Brian Torres Tovar were killed on Saturday in an attack the U.S. blamed on the Islamic State. A U.S. civilian interpreter Ayad Mansour Sakat also died. President Trump joined military officials and the soldiers grieving families for the dignified transfer of remains today at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. Still to come on the NewsHour, we delve into one proposal to address rising health care premiums

by putting money into health savings accounts, the global implications of the U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil tankers from Venezuela, and a Brown University student discusses the trauma he's experienced from the recent shooting and past gun violence. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington. and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to run out for millions of people in just two weeks. But today, there was a shift on Capitol Hill. Four moderate House Republicans defied Speaker Johnson

and signed a Democratic-led petition to force a vote on extending the subsidies. That three-year extension now has the support to pass the House, but the vote won't happen. until January. Meanwhile, also today, House Republicans advanced a separate bill that would reduce health care costs overall, but would not extend the subsidies. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin spoke with lawmakers about where things stand. Joining me now are two members from the same state, but different parties who have been working across the aisle on this issue, California Republican, Kevin Kiley, and Democrat Jimmy Panetta. Representative Kiley, let me start with you. This

discharge petition that would extend these subsidies for three years is getting a lot of attention. Are you ready to sign on to that or no? Well, I'm wanting to do whatever will actually solve the problem. My concern with that bill is that it is not a compromise and it's already been rejected by the Senate. So we could pass it in the House, but it won't actually solve the problem for 22 million Americans. What we need to do is support one of three compromised proposals that are out there. I have a bill with Sam Ricardo. There's one with Jen Kiggins and Josh Kottheimer.

There's one with Brian Fitzpatrick. All of these are reasonable compromises that provide for a temporary extension with reforms, but unfortunately, the leadership in both parties has refused to do what's necessary to get a vote on those bills. We're going to come back to those ideas, but just one quick check. So is that a yes? Are you thinking of signing on to this three-year extension? I'm still considering whether that's the best option for actually getting the problem solved. I'm not interested in taking votes just for the purpose of taking votes or to try to make it look like you're doing something.

I'm interested in actually finding a solution. Oh, go ahead. No, no, and I appreciate that, Lisa. I think the question for Mr. Kylie and something he'll figure out is whether or not he's going to vote for it. Because fortunately, there were four Republicans, and they give them a lot of credit, who signed on to the discharge petition today. Therefore, we hope that there's a vote come early January. Unfortunately, it's after the deadline, after 22 million are going to be affected by the cutoff in the tax credits for the ACA. But at least it's something.

And the unfortunate part, and I know Kevin feels this way, is that we've come to govern by discharge petition in the United States Congress, not by leadership. And that's something that unfortunately has affected us throughout the 119th Congress. But this is necessary to send over to the Senate so that they now have a tax vehicle upon which they can work with. And as you know, that's where the nuts and bolts are going to get added to this flatline extension of three years. Well, I want both of you to be brutally honest about this because obviously millions of people's, you know, health care is at stake here. How hopeful are you that there could be a solution in January here? Well, I think that, you know, if we don't get a solution by the end of December, then yes, we need to do everything we possibly can to get a solution in January. But really what we should do is get a solution now.

I offered an amendment last night that would have been presented to the Rules Committee that I thought reflected what, you know, an accessible. compromise to our leadership was. But unfortunately, I was told that would be ruled out of order. And so we just have gotten into these rigid positions from the leadership on both sides. So it's fallen upon folks like me and my colleague here, Representative Panetta, to try to lead as members to find the common ground that will be necessary to solve this problem. As you say, for 22 million Americans who are going to pay massively more for health care in a matter of days if Congress doesn't act. Yeah, I think we're going to have this is this has to be the short-term solution. But we both know that there's got to be a long-term solution as to how we fix our health care system. Right now, we understand it's expensive.

Right now, there are patients in my district and senior citizens who just aren't getting the care that they need, especially with doctors, not getting reimbursed enough for Medicare. So obviously, you have the reimbursement issue with the ACA, and you have the reimbursement issue with Medicare. These are something that we have to focus on, not just short-term, but long-term. And hopefully this three-year tax extension gets to the Senate, comes back, gives us the foundation upon which we could then start having serious conversations, just not just amongst members, but hopefully leadership actually understands how important it is to fix our health care system.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. This is designed to give us some runway to solve the larger affordability issues in our health care system, and it has to be done in a bipartisan way. We've seen far too much partisanship. Republicans take control and try to do their health care plan. Democrats take control and try to do theirs. But the costs have continued to spiral out of control to really fix health care in America, to control costs, to provide greater choice, to unleash innovation.

We need to do it in a bipartisan way. I need to circle back on something you said, Congressman, Kylie. I'm going to attempt a yes or no question from you guys. Is there any chance that these subsidies get extended in December? It doesn't seem like it. Doesn't it seem like... I think there's a... Yeah, I am not ready to give up.

I think we've got two weeks left in this week. We've got two weeks left in the year. All it would take is for the speaker to bring one of these bills to the floor. been actively involved in discussions with him and members on both sides as recently as an hour or so ago. So we're not giving up. And if we do get to the point where they expire, we'll do everything possible to mitigate the harm and try to make people hold. Lisa, you understand how Congress works. Unfortunately, we don't govern by leadership. We don't govern by leadership. We govern by crisis. And therefore, it's a day-by-day situation. And hopefully the speaker

actually develops a hoodspud, actually bring this bill to the floor so that we can get it to the Senate and let them do the work that they need to do in order to give us a foundation for a short-term fix, extending the tax credits, and then ultimately the foundation to talk about a long-term fix to our health care system. I want to make sure our viewers are clear-eyed, though. Speaker Johnson has been clear. He's not bringing up this vote. There's no reason to think that he will, and most of Congress is leaving tomorrow, probably

for a holiday break. Understanding your points, Congressman Kylie, my question to you is about January and what happens then. This is actually for you, Congressman Panetta, there's a funding deadline in January at the end of January. Should Democrats demand health care action in return for funding government again? Look, that's what we're demanded during the shutdown, and we got to this point right now. And hopefully that's something where we'll be able to fix it in early January because the last thing we want is a government shutdown. It's not what I wanted back then. It's not what I've wanted throughout my time in Congress.

But unfortunately, it's gotten to that situation where we've had to shut down the government in order to fix our differences. Hopefully, this is something with this discharge petition. We can pass it out of the House, get it to the Senate, and then have something, a foundation to extend the tax credits well before the budget deadline. Congressman Kylie, you mentioned the Speaker and leadership earlier. The speaker himself has told reporters today that he was open to getting one of your bills on the floor and worked with you very hard, but that you moderates opted out because of requirements for payfor's. But what was his role exactly in all of this? How do you see that? Well, so yesterday, it was very clear, and based on what the speaker said today, even, that he had agreed to one of these compromised proposals with pay-for's. And so I prepared an amendment for the Rules Committee last night that would have done precisely that.

that would have stopped us from going off this cliff, would have spared 22 million people this huge increase in health care costs. Unfortunately, the Speaker then decided that he was not going to rule that to be an order and allow for a vote on the amendment. So that's very disappointing to me. I think that this is a failure of leadership, frankly, on both sides that we've seen, and it's all too typical of Washington, of the current state of the U.S. Congress, that most of the energy from party leaders seems to be spent trying to blame the other side for problems.

rather than actually trying to work towards solution to those problems. Fortunately, we do have some members who are willing to reach across the aisle. We've both signed on to one of the discharge petitions by Mr. Gottheimer and Ms. Kiggins that would solve this problem. So we are still trying to work together to find a solution. And we're both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, in which just today we had a meeting about this issue with senators, bipartisan, bicameral, in which they can basically discuss kind of the one runway that we have to take going forward.

Mr. Johnson needs to understand this stat that of those 22 million people, three quarters of them are in red states. It's amazing that he wouldn't appreciate the fact and listen to his constituents and their constituents in those red states to realize that you've got to be able to serve them and not just the president in the United States. All right, Congressman Kevin Kiley and Jimmy Panetta, we will stay very closely tuned. Thank you both. Thank you.

Thank you. Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire, we looked yesterday at how they work. Tonight, we take a close look at one of the main Republican alternatives to replace them and help Americans pay for their health care, something called health savings accounts. The pushback started almost immediately. You lie! You like! You lie! You lie! You lie! You lie! You lie! You lie! You lie! The Affordable Care Act was an instant lightning rod, which conservatives decried, challenged, and worked to replace. That effort peaked

in 2017, when a bill to repeal the ACA died with a dramatic thumbs down from then Senator John McCain. Since then, Republicans, including President Trump, in last year's debate, have struggled to articulate a specific Obamacare reform plan. So just to yes or no, you still do not have a plan. I have concepts of a plan. But now conservatives are rallying behind a policy prescription predating Obamacare, the HSA, or health savings account.

A health savings account allows people to manage some of their own health care dollars and they decide how those dollars are spent. Let's stop here. This is John Goodman, known as the father of the HSA. Primarily people who save money get to keep it. Because in 1992, he co-authored the book, Patient Power, laying out the idea. It is the same today. HSAs are accounts patients can use tax-free to save for health care. They attach to the cheapest insurance plan. called high deductible plans. In those plans, patients pay less up front,

but each time they need healthcare, they will pay more, maybe a lot more, than in traditional plans. That's a risk. HSAs are designed to provide a cushion or a reserve of health care cash. Ten years after Goodman's book came out, in 2003, President George W. Bush signed HSAs into law.

And it started out slowly, slowly because this was something new that employers, insurance companies weren't used to. But today, there are 40 million of these accounts, and they cover 60 million people. And also the idea is spread abroad. Even China has health savings accounts. South Africa has them. Singapore has them. So it's not just an American idea.

And not just a private insurance idea. Now HSAs are central to Republican plans for reforming. in government, meaning Obamacare. ACA subsidies vary by income. Republicans want to see income caps, but they also want to change how the money flows. Right now, individuals choose an insurance plan on the ACA marketplace, and in most cases, the federal government sends subsidy money to the insurance company.

Republicans instead want subsidies to go to health savings accounts controlled by each person, and they would then choose how to spend it, including on an insurance. That may seem like a small difference, but supporters say it can cut down on fraud and changes the equation because consumers are the best decision makers. Health care relates our life, right? But it's a business for everybody else. G. Buy is a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in health care policy. She testified last week in Congress about the Affordable Care Act.

Many people believe health care is a right. That is fundamentally wrong. wrong. Health care is a commodity. We spoke shortly after. Once the patients control their dollars, all the providers have to compete to make patients happy. So that will change all the incentives on market. Buy argues give patients more control of dollars and companies will compete for them directly with some lowering costs. Then we're going to see price collapse everywhere. I think it would be very difficult for most people to shop around for health care. Cynthia Cox of KFF is among the health care analysts who say there are some practical issues and some big trade-offs with HSAs.

She says people can't yet access health care prices fluidly and the very sick account for most health care spending and usually blow through their deductible, leaving little incentive to shop around. While it could potentially lead to lower costs for everybody if people do shop around more for health care, I think the savings would be pretty minimal from that. Critics on the left argue that HSAs disproportionately benefit the wealthy who can put more into the accounts with large tax advantages. But there is another factor. Some Republicans want to dramatically expand HSAs, give qualifying Americans' HSA accounts to spend on any insurance plan in or out of the ACA. Which would create a huge incentive for younger, healthier people to not be purchasing into

the ACA plans, which would lead to a death spiral potentially in the ACA markets, it would effectively undo the Affordable Care Act. But that is the point for many conservatives, like John Goodman, who see Obamacare as bad policy. But he admits HSAs similarly don't solve a key problem. We're spending a lot on health care that doesn't extend our life expectancy or cure diseases. We need to take a close look at the whole system and where the money is going. HSAs and the Affordable Care Act are important, competing ideas that try to address who can get health care and how much they pay. But also important, neither fundamentally shifts the bigger issue.

America's expensive health care system is not making America healthier. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Lisa Desjardin. President Trump today continued his rhetorical campaign against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. As a large American naval force sits in the waters off the coast, Mr. Trump sent a social media broadside last night against Maduro, which he reiterated today. The U.S., he says, will actively blockade and seize vessels that had already sanctioned, a move some critics have called an act of war. Schifrin starts our coverage. In the Caribbean Sea, U.S. troops at the ready for a new mission with more targets. American sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers.

Last night on truth social, President Trump promised to, quote, total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. Just a blockade. We're not going to let anybody going through that shouldn't be going through. Already last week, the Coast Guard and military boarded and seized a tanker. There are more than 30 such tankers off the Venezuelan coast, a ghost fleet of ships that Venezuela has used to evade oil sanctions. That pressures Venezuela's chief source of revenue.

There are estimates that 90 percent of the economy is based on oil exports. U.S. officials believe challenging that weakens Maduro's grip on power and could force him to step down. So how far would you go to take Maduro out of office? I don't want to say that, but you want to see him out? You want to see him out? His days are numbered. A blockade is an act of war.

But on the Hill today, Democrats demanded that Congress vote on and reject direct military action against Venezuela. My preference would be that there be a better leader than Maduro in place. But that's not to say we can displace him by military means. A blockade also opposed today by Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum. The position of Mexico. We reiterate Mexico's position. according to our Constitution of non-intervention, no foreign interference, self-determination of peoples, and peaceful resolution of controversies.

But President Trump is making clear another U.S. priority. The U.S.'s historic interest in Venezuelan oil and gas. The country has the world's largest oil reserves, which the U.S. helped develop exactly one century ago. But former leader Hugo Chavez kicked out some U.S. and other foreign energy companies before his death in 2013. Today, only Chevron remains. And Trump yesterday wrote that the U.S. will not allow a hostile regime to take our oil, land,

or any other assets, all of which must be returned to the United States immediately. You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil from not that long ago, and we want it back. But they took it. They illegally took it. To that, Maduro accuses the U.S. of resource colonialism. We tell the people of the United States are truth, and it is very clear. Imperialism and the Nazi fascist right wing want to colonize Venezuela to take our wealth.

Oil, gas, gold, iron, aluminum, and other minerals. Not blood for oil, not war for oil. The claims about drug trafficking are fake news, a lie and excuse. For years, the U.S.'s pressure on Maduro was political, but now the U.S. is treating, his regime as a national security threat and possible military target, raising the stakes even higher. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schifrey. For one perspective on the latest Trump administration move against Venezuela, we turn to David Smiley, Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Tulane University. He has written extensively about Venezuela for over three decades.

Thanks so much for making time for us. Thank you. You've called this latest move to block Venezuelan oil exports misguided at best. Why? Especially when the administration makes the case that this is the best way to pressure the Maduro regime. Well, I think this will indeed pressure the Maduro regime. The problem is that these kind of sanctions, these kind of sectoral sanctions on Venezuela, affect the entire economy. So they affect the people even more than it affect Maduro. And this is what we've seen. Since 2017, we've had sanctions, and they've affected Maduro, but they've actually strengthened his hand vis-a-vis the population. basically gives him more control, more discretional control over what resources do flow in.

And we've seen this in the case of Cuba as well. Over a half century of sanctions have actually solidified the Communist Party there. And so I think it's deeply misguided in that way in terms of trying to generate some kind of change. And it also is going to have a huge humanitarian impact. I mean, Venezuela's oil is the heartblood of the economy, and this could end up generating a famine in Venezuela. Well, a question about the overall strategy, because for years, U.S. policy has rested on this idea that economic pain would trigger an internal revolt, especially within the military. Why hasn't that happened? It does cause economic pain. But that economic pain is distributed across the whole country, and the people that are most able to withstand that pain are precisely Nicolas Madhuatl and the people around him. No, he's very good at divviting up rewards and making sure that they get the best of everything, while. everyone else in the country suffers the sanctions.

That essentially sort of increases, if you want to think about this way, increases Maduro's ratio of power over the population. So it's not going to lead to change. And when President Trump frames Venezuelan oil as U.S. oil on U.S. land, how does that rhetoric strike the ear of the Venezuelan public? Well, it's really puzzling to understand what he actually means by this. No, there's no jurisprudence in Venezuela or, you know, States that would suggest that the oil belongs to anybody other than Venezuelan people.

And this is something that is sort of the center of Venezuelan culture. I've been surprised just today with my colleagues, my Venezuelan colleagues discussing with them how many of them who are fervent government opponents are outraged by this, by this entire discourse. No. This is what Chavez-Mil has been saying for 25 years, has been saying, you know, if the U.S. criticizes democracy or human rights in Venezuela, they will always say it's about the oil. the United States really wants the oil, even when it was not about that.

And so now Trump comes along and says, well, it really is about the oil. I mean, you can't imagine a discourse that fits better with Chavez Mo's whole idea what they've been saying for 25 years. If sanctions and threats can't produce the desired result, what does history tell us has a better chance of working in a case like Venezuela? I think all of this pressure that President Trump has put on Maduro and on Venezuela is real pressure. They are feeling real pressure. Could be used to try and negotiate, to try and negotiate. The thing is, simply negotiating Maduro's exit is probably not going to work,

no. People tend to think, oh, this is a criminal government, so just, you know, pay them off and get them to leave and they'll do that. But, you know, these people really think that they are the bears of Hugo Chavez's revolution, and they want to pretend, and they see that as an anti-imperialist revolution. So they really want to see this government continue. I think some kind of negotiation that not only provides for their safety and their exit, but also for the continuation of Chavismo, perhaps some sort of co-government during a couple of years. There's a number of proposals that are circulating that I think could be difficult. They would be difficult. There's no guarantee that they would work, but compared to what is being proposed from the Trump

administration, I think there would be much better ways to go. So bottom line, when Americans hear that the Trump administration is exerting more pressure on Venezuela, what can the American people realistically expect in terms of outcome? I don't expect any real outcome. I think in terms of if they're going to go forward with this kind of blockade of sanctioned oil vessels, this could cause a humanitarian catastrophe within Venezuela, and we will be seeing images of that. If there's some sort of effort at a military strike, I think minimal military strikes of the type

that are being discussed would not lead to democracy. I think they would lead to chaos, some kind of chaos like we see in Haiti, right? now because there's so many armed actors within Venezuela that have their hands in illicit markets that, you know, and who are compromised, who are compromised by human rights abuses or corruption or other crimes who really fear a transition. So I think you would see some sort of chaos if that happened. The one possibility is if the President Trump could use all this pressure to try to negotiate some sort of reasonable transition that would have to include Chavezmo in some way. David Smiley, professor at Tulane University, thanks again for your time this evening.

Thank you. Five days after a mass shooting at Brown University left two students dead and nine others injured, authorities have not yet identified a suspect and the shooter remains at large. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley acknowledged that many in the city remain restless and eager for an arrest. Yesterday, the FBI released these images of a person of interest seen in the area moments before the attack. Today, Providence Police released these photos, asking for the public's help to identify a man they say was in proximity of the person of interest. For one family, this shooting was a harrowing reminder of another traumatic incident, the attempted assassination of Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg in 2022. The mayor's youngest son, Ben Greenberg, is a junior at Brown University.

and both join me now. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I'm pleasure to be here. So, Ben, I want to begin with you. It's my understanding. Your apartment at Brown is across the street

from where the shooting unfolded. Just tell us how and when you realized what was unfolding and what you and your friends did when you realized that. Yeah, so I live across the street from Barrison Hawley. In a house, it's a two-unit house,

but it's essentially a house. So I just got back from the gym and I was in my room. And my friend texts me, he's like, what are all these sirens doing? He makes a joke about like what's going on, like just not knowing it's anything serious. And we come, we get a DPS notification from Brown saying there's an active shooter and all of my friends go to my roommate's room. We barricade ourselves in the room because we have a back door to the. the other unit that doesn't lock. And we didn't know, we didn't know really anything at the time and we're all pretty stressed if maybe the shooter could have theoretically gone in. So we

barricade ourselves in a room and stay the night altogether. And I'm so sorry for what you have had to endure. And I have to ask your father here, Mr. Mayor, take us back to the moment you learned about the shooting and having lived through what you did yourself, an attempt on your life, surviving gun violence. What did you think in the moment when you realized what your son was going through? My heart sank. You become physically numb in those types of moments. My wife and I were at a University of Louisville basketball game when I got the worst signed up for alerts from Brown University as well. So it immediately came in and immediately reached out to Ben to see if he was safe, and Rachel and I left, you know, the game shortly after we knew how serious it was

so we could stay in touch with Ben for the entire evening. But it took us right back to Valentine's Day of 2022 when there was an assassination attempt on me in my campaign office. It took me back to my time as mayor when there was a mass shooting in April of 23, shortly after I became mayor here in Louisville, and then another one a few days later in one of our parks, It was a horrible week for our city, but I've never experienced it before as a father. And so Rachel and I had a long night staying on the phone and in constant touch by text with Ben and his roommates answering questions, providing reassurance and just talking through things, given the stress while we're all waiting for answers. Ben, I have to assume you're part of a generation that grew up going through lockdown drills in schools, like so many other kids in this country. You are familiar with gun violence in terms of having witness what your father has been through himself.

Did you ever think something like this would happen? Did you feel prepared when you realized what was unfolding? That was one of the first things I talked to my friends about. We were saying, really, it doesn't, you see so many bad things on the news, and you really don't think any of that stuff is going to happen to you personally until it does. And especially this being the second time, I haven't been actively, thankfully, like physically unharmed from any acts of gun violence. But this being the second time is just really, and I think multiple people of Brown,

this has been there are multiple occurrences with gun violence. It's really sad that it's becoming, it feels like it's becoming so commonplace. And are you worried about returning to campus? Well, thankfully, I'm going abroad next semester, so I think it'll be really nice to take a break from campus. But one of my best friends, I have a group of friends all going abroad, and I have one of them who's staying at campus. And I really feel for him with the increase in security, especially one of my friends who was in the building at the time. He's an engineering student, so he's always there 24-7 and really, how are you going to be in that building to do work? let alone to take finals in that building again.

So part really goes out to those students as well. Mr. Mayor, of course, you've navigated these moments personally, also as a leader in your city. And you recently announced you're taking some additional security measures in Louisville after what we saw was the targeted terrorist attack of another mass shooting in Australia. That one targeting members of the Jewish community there. Tell us a little bit about why you're taking those steps and why now. We have to remain vigilant, whether it's in Providence, in Louisville, all across the country,

particularly when it's around religious gatherings or political gatherings. Fortunately, last night, our community, menorah lighting went off without any incidents, and we'll continue people, I want people to continue to live their lives. I want everyone here in Louisville, everyone all across the country to feel safe when they're doing that, particularly when they're practicing their religion. And so we are always vigilant about that with our police department. We share a lot of intelligence with others around the country. And we are doing everything we can to make sure that people in Louisville feel safe and are safe.

Can I just ask you both briefly? Your family has been through so much personally now in the last three or four years, having survived two different incidents of gun violence. What is it you would say that you want to see happen to make sure that this doesn't happen to any other family? Mr. Mayor, I'll begin with you. I'd love to see some steps at the federal level, even if they're just small steps. I understand the politics of issues around guns, but let's take some small steps to say everyone, regardless of what political party you are, we all want to reduce the amount of gun violence.

So let's take some steps that we know the American people support. American people support background checks for everyone who's buying a gun. They support waiting periods. We all wait right now at this holiday season. We all wait to get the products and gifts that we've purchased in the mail, or even when you're using Amazon Prime, there's still a little bit of a waiting period. The same should be true for guns. Guns.

Let's ban Glock switches in even more states that convert legal firearms into illegal automatic weapons. Let's ban the use of 3D printers to make guns. Let's support more mental health initiatives. There's so much that can be done. I'd love to see Congress take some steps. even if small steps, to show this country that we're serious about cracking down on gun violence. And I'll give you the final word here. What would you say? I just hope that the Americans aren't becoming normalized to gun violence,

because it really can happen to anyone, especially when you're so close geographically and really knowing people who have been affected, it makes you realize that it can be anyone and really just, I'm so fortunate to be okay and my dad's okay, but I really hope that the American people knows that this is not okay and cannot be normalized. That is Louisville mayor, Craig Greenberg

and his son, Ben, joining us tonight. Thank you to you both. We really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. In 2023, we introduced you to a transgender girl named Leah. She was living in Texas with her parents, John, and Mary. We concealed their identities because families like theirs faced growing threats.

Since then, lawmakers have taken steps to further restrict the rights of transgender people. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state bans on transgistened medical care for minors, and this evening, the U.S. House passed a bill that would make it a felony to provide those treatments. It still needs Senate approval. William Brangham recently caught up with Leah and her family as they wrestled with their next steps. This is a day that for a while Leah hoped would never come. She told us as much a couple years ago. We just have our whole life here, and the last thing I want to do would be have to move.

But now, at the age of 15, Leah and her parents, John and Mary, have decided they must move. They've packed their entire life into boxes, prepped for the truck in their driveway. They're leaving Texas for Colorado, seeking refuge in a state with friendlier policies for transgender kids like Leah. I've this year pretty much all my life, so definitely it's going to be a big change. Leah came out as trans several years ago. First, she transitioned socially, changing her name and her clothes. She did years of counseling, started on puberty blockers, and just over a year ago began

taking estrogen. Those steps are all considered gender-affirming care, which is endorsed by major U.S. medical associations. But those treatments have come under increased scrutiny in recent years, and more than half of U.S. states now have laws restricting this kind of care for anyone under 18. Texas passed its ban in 2023. Last year, Leah and her family began making regular trips to New Mexico for her treatment, traveling hundreds of miles and spending thousands of dollars.

We have other kids, we have adult kids, and I feel like we've given them every opportunity for anything that they wanted to do, and we cannot do that right now for Leah, and she deserves that too. Texas now requires a person's driver's license to match the gender on their birth certificate. It bars teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation and prohibits school clubs focused on those issues. In just this month, a law went into effect banning the use of public bathrooms that don't correspond to a person's sex at birth. It still didn't feel unsafe necessarily, but it felt it did feel direct. We had to talk to Leah about just laying low,

which it just kind of goes against everything we believe and have always told our kids to like be themselves and be proud of who they are. And it was kind of the first time we really have to be like, we can't talk about this at all. So this fall, John and Mary decided to put their house on the market. We just need to get rid of the anchor. We'll hang out here and then that way we can go as needed. The way things unfolded, the house sold within days of setting it up. So we just had to look at the situation and say, okay, maybe it's time to go now.

In October, they piled into the moving truck and made the over 14-hour trek from Austin to Denver. Colorado is known as a trans refuge state, and many families with trans kids have moved here in recent years. It's one of 17 states in the District of Columbia that protect access to gender-affirming care. Earlier this year, Colorado passed an anti-discrimination law that, among other provisions, aims to ensure that trans people are called by their chosen names. So when you saw the Welcome to Colorado, it felt like as soon as we crossed over, over, there was a little bit wave of emotion. And I did not expect that at all.

Motion of relief, there was a happiness to it, and there was an immediate calmness. Just today, you said, I haven't felt this peaceful and I don't know how long. So just that, I think, has made all of this worth it, honestly. Leah, John, and Mary are now renting a house in the Denver area. Leah has started at a new school, and she recently got into a local clinic for her

her care. Everybody is just like, wants me here. It's amazing. She'll share, like, today in English class, we read an essay, and the essay was about a gay boy, and she's like, I'm just, I'm so happy we're here, and I'm just like, okay, this is why we did this. Despite that relief, John especially is shaken by the idea that they have become refugees in their own country.

I've been having conversations with my parents about our parallel journeys. Back in the 80s, we fled Central America because of the communist wars, and we fled to the United States. And the United States gave us a life, gave us opportunity that we didn't expect. So now we're looking at we need to keep our family safe. What does that mean? We're looking at it from one state to another state within the country. Within the country that the world used to flee to for safety and opportunity, we're looking to flee from. And that's just mind-blowing.

And there's a larger concern that even in Colorado, the threats are not eliminated. Official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. Since retaking office, President Trump has moved to restrict the rights of transgender Americans. The State Department stopped allowing passports that match trans people's gender identities. The Pentagon reinstated a ban on transgender. gender troops. Expressing a false gender identity divergent from an individual sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. The war on women's sports is over. The administration threatened to withhold funding from states where transgender girls are allowed

to play in girls' sports. We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes and we will not allow men to beat up injure and cheat our women and our girls. And an executive order in January put hospitals and clinics at risk of losing federal dollars if they continued to practice gender-affirming medical care. The Biden administration peddled dangerous policies that defied medical science in favor of radical transgender ideology. But President Trump has put an end to that to ensure America's children's innocence is protected. Some providers preemptively stopped those treatments, even in states where they were otherwise protected. Multiple clinics in Colorado stopped care for a while.

We were looking at other states because of that. We ended up here because we have other children and we need to be near them and this was the closest that we could be to them. But that was definitely something that we took into consideration and for a while across Colorado off of our list. But here we are and we feel safe for now. At the end of the day, we're going to keep her safe and she's going to transition. Whether we got to do it here in Canada, in Spain, in Antarctica, wherever it is, we're going to do that. And we have decided that we are going to be prepared to pivot as much as we need to. Leah says, despite all her parents' efforts, the pressure on trans people in America is pervasive,

and it's hard to keep it at bay. Transitioning is like the best thing that's ever happened to me. So like I never take that back now that I'm here with my people that want to protect me. I mean, It's a totally different mindset because at some point it did feel like I had heard so, so, so much from the kids at school and just from people in Texas in general that I started to question, am I the problem? I didn't know you thought that. She's the bravest person I owe. Fearless. For the PBS News Hour, I'm William Brangham in Denver, Colorado. for live coverage of the president's address to the nation.

That's online and here on PBS, beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern. And that is The News Hour for tonight. I'm Omna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at The News Hour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.