PBS News Hour - Full Show - January 28, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Wednesday on the News Hour, FBI agents raid an elections office in Georgia as part of a probe into the 2020 election, which President Trump continues to falsely claim he won. Political tensions intensify as a Minnesota Democrat is attacked at a town hall and Congress faces another potential shutdown. Plus, a family detention center that's been criticized for living conditions is put on lockdown. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Omnan Abbas. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, FBI agents raid an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of a probe into the 2020 election, which President Trump continues to falsely claim he won. Political tensions intensify as a Minnesota Democrat is attacked at a town hall, and Congress faces another potential government shutdown. And a family detention center criticized for substandard living conditions is put on lockdown. We speak to the lawyer of one family being kept there. This is the reaction of the Trump administration to individuals expressing their free speech rights, both inside these facilities and outside these facilities. Welcome to the News Hour. The FBI executed a search warrant at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia today,

seeking records related to the 2020 election. Federal agents were seen entering the office outside of Atlanta this afternoon. No, baseless claims of voter fraud in Fulton County have been a focus of President Trump since he lost the 2020 election. Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, has been following all of this, and she joins us now. So, Liz, this search is a remarkable escalation of the president's unfounded claims about the 2020 election. What do we know about what happened? The FBI confirming to us this afternoon that they are conducting what they say is a court-authorized

law enforcement action at that Fulton County Election Center. just moments before we got on the air. We obtained the search warrant that they have there in Georgia. It was signed today by a federal judge. And in it, it gives us some more information about what the FBI is seeking. It says they're looking for physical ballots from the 2020 election envelopes, provisional ballots, ballot images, and voter rolls, Omna. So I spoke earlier with David Becker, who's an elections attorney and former Department of Justice Civil Rights Attorney. And he said that the ballots in Fulton County have been counted many times. They've been counted three times, actually, and one of those times was by hand. So the idea that the FBI may find something new here

is unlikely. But as you mentioned, this remains a fixture for the president. He continues to lie about the 2020 election results, and in particular in Georgia. Remember, he had that phone call with the Secretary of State in 2021, Brad Raffinsberger, where he asked him to find basically the vote margin that would push him over the edge to win the state of Georgia there. Just last week, the president said in a speech, people will soon be prosecuted for what they did in the 2020 election. Amna, he talks about this on almost a daily basis. We're at the beginning of another election year. How does what we saw today play into the larger preparations for those upcoming midterms? That's right. This comes as the Trump administration has been requesting voter

information from states. And the president hints that he thinks he could use. the National Guard to, in his view, secure elections. I spoke earlier with two Secretaries of State, Democrat Shanna Bellows of Maine and Republican Michael Adams of Kentucky, about this raid today and how they're preparing for elections this year amid debates over ballot security and voter access. Welcome to NewsHara. Thanks so much for joining us here. Thank you.

It's a pleasure. Secretary Bellows, I want to start with you about some news of the day that we're hearing today. What is your reaction to this FBI search of the first? Fulton County Georgia Elections Office. This is apparently part of a probe related to the 2020 election. What do you make of that search? We're still waiting for more information, but this is deeply concerning. The fact that the lies of 2020 have not ended and we're still relitigating the presidential election then, these lies are very dangerous, and I think it's really concerning. It doesn't bode well for 2026 and 28. Secretary Adams, are you concerned that DOJ could

target other states like this? Well, I think it's really telling you telling that we've had, I think, 24 states down litigation with the DOJ on our voter rolls, and there's been no FBI raid. So I don't want to overread into this where they might be there. My understanding is this is a situation where the state election board is adverse to the county of Fulton and has asked the DOJ to intervene. So that doesn't mean that it's all fine. I don't know more facts than you do about it, but I don't rush to judgment on it. Secretary Bellows, last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota to the governor there on Saturday right after that fatal shooting that we saw in Minneapolis, asking the

governor to, in part, turn over voter rolls to the Department of Justice. Your state is experiencing right now a surge in federal immigration agents. Has the Attorney General sent a letter like this to you? And why do you think the Department of Justice is gunning so hard to get this information? So I think it's deeply concerning. And keep in mind for your viewers in Maine, ISIS surging, they're calling it grotesquely catch of the day, which is just truly gross. We're in the bottom quartile in terms of percentage of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. So for them to send a letter on the heels of the killing of Alex Pruddy and demand Minnesota's voter roles as a condition for ICE leaving indicates that ICE's presence in Minnesota isn't really about immigration at all. It's

about intimidating election officials. And we're going to continue to fight to protect the integrity of American voter information because the Constitution places the states, not the federal government, not the president in charge of elections. Secretary Adams, I know that you have provided the Department of Justice some of the public voter files right now. How are you complying with this and navigating this as a Republican? So I think there are opposite polls here. One poll is never ever cooperate with the administration. And that's not the right posture, I don't think, on the law. The other is just give them everything that they ask for and not run your traps. We're doing something more in the middle,

which is that we have our own data privacy laws in Kentucky. We have our own personal privacy laws in Kentucky. And any citizen of the United States can ask for our voter rolls, and many do. And every campaign asks for them, the state parties ask for them, and we provide that information. But when we're dealing with people's personally identifying information,

their driver's license number, their social security number, that's in a different field. We don't give those to the candidates and the parties. You know, candidly, the law is not super clear on this. No one, no DOGs ever asked for this before. So there's no FAQ on my website to tell me what to do on it. So it may come down to litigation. It may come down to us getting guidance from the courts to see where the federal law stops and the state law begins.

And I appreciate what Secretary Adams is saying because I think this is really important. We're an open book with regards to what we do, our procedures, our list maintenance. We've provided that information to the Department of Justice, where we draw the line. is a sensitive personal data of every American. What are you both doing to reassure both the public and the Trump administration that the elections in your states are secure? Because we hear the president questioning that frequently.

We see it in terms of voter turnout. So Maine routinely ranks in the top of the nation and voter participation. In 2022, we were number one. Minnesota was number two. In 2024, Minnesota was number one. We were number two. And in fact, election integrity was

on the ballot in Maine just this past November with a question about voter ID and absentee voting. 63% of Mainers voted basically showing their confidence in our elections by rejecting any changes to our election laws. So we do believe our elections are free, safe, and secure. We have post-election audits. We have frequent recounts given how close, how purple Maine is.

And the voters tell us that they think our elections are free, safe, and secure, because they show up. Well, at the rest of our bragging, on the top vote-getter in my state of both, parties and I think that's a big vote of confidence in our election process but also the trip administration is routinely filed briefs and other pleadings in cases that we have in federal court taking our side of the argument on saying

that we don't need to be supervised by a federal court on our voter rolls that they're clean that they're up to date they're accurate so I feel like we've to date satisfied both the public in my state and also the administration secretary Bell is the president recently told the New York Times that he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after those 2020 elections. What would you do as the top elections official in Maine if he made that request after the midterms this year? We would not give him the ballots or, and I think this is important, right? The Constitution places responsibility for the elections in the people that the people

trust, the people closest to them on the ground, the local and state election officials. And in Maine, We have strict chain of custody controls over our ballots. When the ballots are centralized for recounts or ranked choice voting, there are only two people that have the key. One of them is me, and he is not getting our ballots. He's not getting our voter rolls. Is that something you would comply with? I would comply with any legal court order,

but I wouldn't just take any order that's issued to me and let that trump the law of my own state. I'd follow the law of my own state. Both of you work closely with local election officials in your states. What's the biggest operational challenges that you're facing right now? I'll start with you, Secretary Bill. So we're really challenged to recruit folks into the field with the retirement of the baby boomers and also fears about threats because of misinformation and lies about the elections.

So it's a much more challenging environment. So we're always working hard to recruit new clerks, to train our folks. And I think that's probably the biggest challenge. So I was elected in 2019. and before I was even sworn in in 2020, I was called to my legislature and asked what's the biggest concern that I had. And I said, having enough poll workers

and enough voting locations. And that was before COVID. It was before all the stuff that we've seen, all the crazy elections the last several years. And that's an ongoing issue. The Secretary Mello's point, our generation is just not volunteering at the level that our parents did and grandparents did.

But we also have locations that don't want to be voting locations anymore. Schools are nervous about being public voting locations. They're worried about active shooters being able to scope out buildings and look for ways in and then come back later when the kids are there. Churches are getting more either more political or apolitical, but either way they have less comfort with being a voting location. So it's getting harder for us to recruit people to want to be part of the process and locations as well. You two are here in the area for a conference right now. Talk about the relationship between you as secretaries of state.

Secretaries of State. What is the information sharing like right now? We talk every day. Not all 50 of us to each other, but in lots of calls with these folks. We have regular calls every Thursday at 3 o'clock or what have you. But we also have a lot of private conversations. And one thing that's changed over time is when I first got here, it was really a debating society between those of us on the right and those of us on the left, about voter ID and other little things. And then when we went through 2020 together, and then the misinformation stuff wasn't just about certain states,

it was all 50 of us dealing with the same threats on our person, the same threats of the system, the same concerns. We really kind of bonded over that because we're all fighting the same battle. I think that's right. And I think on election security issues, on physical security, cybersecurity, back in 2023 and 24, I was threatened and doxed and spotted. And when I came to the NASS conference, you know, my Republican colleagues were giving me hugs and praying for me. I do think that there is a lot of bipartisan conversation and dialogue.

We are not going to agree on certain policies. But I think this is something that the American people can have confidence in. It doesn't matter what state you are in, whether it's Maine or Kentucky. We may not agree on certain voting rights policies, but in terms of the integrity of election administration, in terms of the checks and balances and the state and local control, elections. That's something that I think we all really value. And I think is really important today. Secretary Bellows, Secretary Adams, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. We start today's other headlines in Minneapolis. Homeland Security officials now say that the two

federal agents who fired shots in the death of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti have been on administrative leave since it happened on Saturday. That contradicts a prior comment from Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who had said the agents had been transferred but were still working. They have not been publicly identified. It follows Trump aides, Stephen Miller, suggesting yesterday that the agents may not have been following protocol before the shooting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio today defended the Trump administration's military operation to seize then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said President Trump had acted to take out a major national security threat to the U. U.S. During what was the first public hearing since the January 3rd raid, Rubio also pledged to work with Venezuelan authorities to stabilize that country. And he stressed that there was no other option. You couldn't make a deal with this guy. This guy has made multiple deals he's broken every one of them. It's not going to be like from one day to the next. We're going to have this thing turn around overnight. But I think we're making good and decent progress. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth pressed Rubio over the administration's decision to invoke

a wartime law when entering Venezuela. So the president's already said that he's not ruined out the military option. And you've also just said that, yes, we are at war. The president has war time powers. So it's reasonable for me to ask you. And I gave you a very specific example. Every president retains the right to defend the United States against an imminent threat. During his testimony, the Secretary of State also tried to ease concerns among democratic lawmakers

about the administration's approach to Greenland, NATO, Iran, and China. The Federal Reserve is hitting the brakes on interest rate cuts after three cuts last year. It comes despite relentless pressure from the Trump administration to lower rates even more. Speaking this afternoon, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy's outlook has clearly improved since the Fed's last meeting in December. That's despite stubbornly high inflation. And he signaled that Fed officials see little reason to rush further cuts. You know, the economy's growing at a solid pace. the unemployment rate has been broadly stable, and inflation remains somewhat elevated.

So we'll be looking to our goal variables and letting the data light the way for us. Powell was asked about his appearance last week at the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing into the Trump administration's efforts to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Powell called it, quote, perhaps the most important legal case in the Fed's 113 year history. Weather officials are warning of what they're calling the longest duration of cold in several decades for parts of the southern and eastern U.S. Many areas remain covered in ice following last weekend's storm that has now claimed at least 50 lives. In Mississippi, crews worked to restore power and clear trees toppled by last weekend's winter storm.

Nearly 400,000 customers were still without power today from Texas to Tennessee. Further north, in places like Pennsylvania, many people have been waiting days for their streets to be plowed. That's as another significant winter storm looks set to hit the eastern U.S. this coming weekend. For the first time in history, a woman now leads the Church of England. Archbishop Sarah, we welcome you. We welcome you. Sarah Mulally was officially confirmed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at a ceremony today at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The 63-year-old former nurse will serve as the spiritual leader for some 85 million Anglicans around the world, though King Charles remains Supreme Governor of the Church. Malali takes over amid divisions on issues like the role of women in the church and its treatment of LGBT people. And while her legal duties begin today, she'll start her public-facing work after one final ceremony in March. Football fans are fuming over news that former New England head coach Bill Belichick is not going to be a first ballot hall of famer. ESPN first reported that the eight-time Super Bowl champion fell short of the required vote threshold in his first year of eligibility. His longtime quarterback Tom Brady told a sports radio program, I don't understand

it. Three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes called the news insane. And NBA legend, LeBron James, called the snub disrespectful. Belichick's career was not without controversy. In 2007, he was fined $500,000 after New England was caught filming signals from an opposing team. The NFL formally announce this year's Hall of Fame class on February 5th. Amazon is cutting about 16,000 corporate jobs and says further layoffs are possible. It's the second round of cuts for the e-commerce giant in just the past few months, and it comes a day after the company said it's closing the rest of its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores.

The online retailer has been slashing costs as it turns its attention to AI. Shares of Amazon ended slightly lower after the news, Elsewhere on Wall Street today, stocks mostly held steady after that Fed decision. The Dow Jones Industrial average added 12 points, so basically flat. The NASDAQ managed a gain of about 40 points. The S&P 500 crossed the 7,000-point threshold for the first time today before ending virtually unchanged. Still to come on the news hour, the leader of New Jersey's largest Catholic diocese calls for defunding ICE after the killings of U.S. citizens. Judy Woodruff kicks off another year of America.

at a crossroads by asking what it means to be an American. And our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, on the 40th anniversary of this space shuttle Challenger disaster. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. For U.S. senators, today was the first full day back in Washington after the killing of Alex Preti and ahead of their Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security and some of the government's other large agents.

They arrived as news is still unfolding on the Preti shooting and as another lawmaker faced a new threat. Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin joins me now for more on all of this. So Lisa, we have been covering the outrage after the pretty shooting, the sense that something shifted. As you talk to Senators, are you sensing a shift in how they're viewing the immigration crackdown? We did. We've been watching that carefully. And today I have to tell you, we heard from Republicans a new kind of very open sense that federal enforcement officers officers went too far in a dangerous way. Now, some of them word this carefully, but more we are seeing Republicans say this sharply.

That includes Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul. But we can't just say, oh, nothing to see here, and he was obviously an assassin and a domestic terrorist. When we say things like that, it leads to no confidence in, so I think there really has to be an independent investigation, and this is going to be an investigation outside of DHS. They should themselves immediately appoint a commission. If they don't, I think Congress may... So there we go, a commission potentially.

Now, Rand Paul is known to break with President Trump, but I heard this kind of idea of concern from more Republicans who don't usually do that. Of course, for Democrats, it's more than just concern. An example is this from Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. This agency is out of control. Its leadership is out of control. Its leadership should step down if not be impeached.

So we are in a serious, serious crisis right now. And there are calls to impeach Christy Noam. We're going to be talking more about that in coming days. But I want to also point at one other group of Republicans. These are Republicans who say, even as they express some concern about ICE, that they think protesters are being too aggressive. One example of that is Florida's Rick Scott. If you have a right to protest in this country, but you don't have a right to interfere

with law enforcement. So don't be stupid. Don't interfere with law enforcement. We all are going to have to work together to get the criminals out of our country. local law enforcement should be working to hand in the glove with ICE right now. One other standout note, Republican leader, John Thune told reporters he thinks this

is, in fact, potentially an inflection moment. So when it comes to leaders who have concerns about the tactics of federal agents, especially Democrats, what are they going to do about ICE? And what does this mean for the chance of a potential shutdown? Those are intertwined questions. And let's start with Democrats. Many people have been wondering.

Senator Schumer today told reporters what Democrats want to fund DHS. There are three things that he listed today, first, that they would end roving raids, enforce code of conduct, and hold agents accountable for harming people, and also that there would be no more masking that they would require body cams and IDs on all officers. But the problem is the DHS funding bill, of course, already passed the House, along with all these other funding bills. So to change it now would cost that partial shutdown.

The White House says if Democrats demand a legislative fix, there will be a shutdown. And that's the point we're at right now. One difference, though, is people seem to want a solution, but honestly, they're just far apart on how to get there. So let's leave Washington for just a moment and talk about this climate of political violence. I know you spend a lot of time covering another attack on a member of Congress.

This time it was Democrat Ilhan Omar last night. Bring us up to speed. Viewers may know Omar represents Minneapolis. She herself is a Somali immigrant. She also is someone who has really received the most vitriolic rhetoric from President Trump while he's been in office. She was speaking at a town hall in Minneapolis last night when a man ran toward her. He scored a syringe with an unidentified liquid and a reporter said there was a vinegar smell

afterward. Police have arrested a man who the Associated Press said supported Trump online and also called Democrats liars. As for Omar, she kept going at that town hall and she posted some defiance on social media writing that this small agitator isn't going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don't let bullies win. President Trump was asked about this. He told ABC that he didn't watch the video, but he called Omar a fraud. He gaslit her saying she probably had herself sprayed. Now, we raise that because that's a message, even if it is a joke, that is part of this climate of intimidation. Meanwhile, we know there's some new information about the level of threats against lawmakers. What should we understand about that? Capital Police came out with some eye-popping statistics over the number of threats they've been tracking. Let's take a look at this. This came out just yesterday last night. Look at this. These are the number of threats. that Capitol Police have investigated in the last few years.

And you see that spike. That is last year, 14,000 plus threats against members of Congress investigated. Omna, that's more than a 50% increase from the year before. So they do have more funding for security. But I can tell you, personally, lawmakers are feeling this. Some of them having to move their residents, taking careful plans with family vacations. This is a real climate of political violence and threat. Lisa Desjardin.

Thank you, as always. Welcome. One of the country's highest-ranking Catholic leaders and the top ally of Pope Leo is sharply criticizing the Trump administration's immigration enforcement calling ICE a lawless organization. During an interfaith service this week, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the head of the Archdiocese of Newark, urged members of the church to pressure lawmakers to block funding for ICE. His remarks come after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. and after the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old boy who was taken into custody by federal agents after arriving home from preschool and sent with his father to a family detention center in Texas. For more now, we're joined by Cardinal Joseph Tobin. Thanks for being with us.

Good evening. Before speaking out, I imagine you must have weighed the implications. What specific moral and theological convictions ultimately compelled you to speak publicly? I think the principal motivator was a concern for the common good. In Catholic way of thinking and approaching social, moral questions, it's not simply the vindication of competing rights, but it's rather the preservation of the common good. And so to look at how the actions in Minneapolis or anywhere else affect the common good, those of people like whom you mentioned, the refugees, people without legal status, as well as the citizens of the United States.

And you've called not just for prayer, but for political action, calling for the defunding of ICE, as we mentioned. What concrete changes do you envision? Well, I think what we want to do is as much as possible is use as a principal motivator the human dignity of people. And I think what I was calling for, and I still call for and will call for, is the recognition of the dignity of human beings, no matter what their legal status may be. How do you reconcile this call to push back against actions you believe are unjust with the church's teaching and the scripture's teaching of respect for government authority? Well, I think that, you know, we pray for our government officials. And as St. Paul says in First Timothy, we pray that in order that we can live tranquil and decent lives, you know, and following our,

our values. And so we are not only pray for ourselves, but we pray for others, because we recognize in human dignity the dignity, especially people who don't do not necessarily look like us. In your message, you also invoked the rise of authoritarianism. Do you believe the country is headed in that direction or that we're presently there? And if so, what are the biggest moral choices facing Americans right now?

Well, I think we have to ask ourselves about the ongoing discord within our society and ask what the roots are. We also have to ask ourselves as Americans, where do we want our country to go? What do we want it to be both here within our national borders and in the community of nations? These are questions that require, I think, respectful listening to each other and also the freedom to express our opinions. Separate from the moral question, there is the political question. And you could argue that President Trump won the Electoral College. He won the popular vote. He won every battleground state running on tougher immigration enforcement, and that lacks enforcement under the

Biden administration caused real harms. Well, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not endorsing anybody's political program or even that, the values of the movement. Rather, I think what we need to do is see what's happening in front of us. And then recall what I think is a fundamental value for any of us with faith, faith, I really hope that the recognition of the human dignity of others is important. And when we see that dignity violated sometimes in a very egregious and even fatal manner, then we have to say something.

As a faith leader looking at this moment in American life, marked by deep turmoil, but also by people coming together in unexpected ways, do you see signs of hope? I really believe that without hope, we're truly in a miserable state. There has to be hope. And part of my hope is that when people recognize the humanity of the other, they change. On the contrary, if you want to do inhuman things to people, what you strive to do is take away their dignity, to call them names. and not recognize them for who they really are. Cardinal Joseph Tobin, thanks again for your time this evening. We appreciate it.

My pleasure, Jeff. God bless you. Two Democratic members of Congress visited the ICE family detention center in Dilley, Texas today, where five-year-old Liam Ramos is being detained, along with many other children and families. Congressman Joaquin Castro posted this image of his meeting with Liam and his father and shared this update on his condition. His father said that Liam has been very depressed since he's been at Dilley, that he hasn't been eating well. I was concerned with, you see how he appears in that photo with his energy. He seemed lethargic.

Over the weekend, hundreds of detainees inside the facility protested their conditions and treatment in this remarkable display of defiance. Immigration attorney Eric Lee was at the center that day, and I spoke with him earlier. Eric Lee, welcome to the News Hour. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Hi. So I want to ask you about that day and those protests that you witnessed in a moment, but I want to start with the news today because you shared earlier that ICE put the entire Dilly facility

on lockdown today. What does that mean when that kind of a place goes on lockdown? And what do you know about why that went into place? Well, it's because of the demonstration that took place. place today in Dilley. We also know that last night, guards burst into one of the women's dormitories, ordered everybody out of the room, stopped people who were in the middle of prayers, and rummaged through everybody's personal belongings to find any evidence of signs or participation in the planned protest for today. So there's no question that this was a significant

attack on the First Amendment rights of all of the people in this facility. What it's looked like today from what we have been hearing from many detained families is that people are not allowed to leave their rooms. They were escorted to the lunch area for meals. And so this is the reaction of the Trump administration to individuals expressing their free speech rights, both inside these facilities and outside these facilities. So this weekend, I want to get to a piece of video that you recorded because I understand you were at the facility, meeting with clients, you saw firsthand some of these images that we saw going viral, getting a lot of media attention and headlines. And you've recorded this piece of video on Saturday. Just take a listen.

Can you hear that? They're shouting, let us out. Let us out. Eric, tell us more about what you saw, what you heard that day, and what prompted the protest in the first place. Well, I was visiting a family that I represent. Their name is El Gamal. There's six of them. There's a mother and her five children, two five-year-old twins who have spent almost 20 percent of their lives at this facility, a nine-year-old, a 16-year-old, an 18-year-old who has since Saturday been separated from her family and denied visitation rights as a result, retribution for her decision to speak out previously about conditions in this facility. The protest, as I understand, was triggered by the fact that people inside saw the size of the general strike and the massive demonstration. that took place in Minneapolis on Friday, and they wanted to join this growing movement from below, a movement of the American population against the Trump administration's effort. You mentioned the Al-Gamal family that you represent.

We should note their father was convicted of domestic terrorism. The family says they knew nothing about that, and as you mentioned, they've now been detained for months. Why are they being held? Are they being charged with something? What's the government's plan for them? The government has detained this family solely because of something that somebody else did. That offends every basic democratic principle upon which this country was founded 250 years ago this year.

The individual responsibility is required for civil and other forms of incarceration in this country. This family, an immigration judge, has determined that they did not know and that they could not have known what their husband slash father was planning. they have publicly denounced to the attack that took place in Boulder. The Trump administration from the very beginning has been punishing this family in a cruel and sadistic way, five-year-old children, not because they did anything wrong, but because of somebody to whom they were related did. And that is not how things are supposed to work in this country. That's how things work in police states where the regime punishes people because of their

associations. And it's extremely concerning that this is being done to this young. family. All they need is to get out. They have a supportive community in Colorado, ready to welcome them home. An immigration judge denied them bond last week because the children and the mom lack sufficient property and assets, among other things. How does a five-year-old have property? He made that decision about each individual child. That's what's happening in the American immigration system. That's what immigration attorneys, unfortunately, see every day. To the American people, it's worse than you think.

You shared online a photo drawn by what I understand is the youngest child in the Al-Gamal family. You posted it online. It shows the family behind bars and the caption, Let Us Go. So from your perspective, Eric, if immigration judges are denying bond here, if this is the system as it's working right now,

what's the recourse for a family like this or others? I think in the medium and long term and actually even in the short term, It's the development of this mass movement of the population of this country, standing up, stepping forward. Change and reform isn't possible within the framework of the present political establishment. Press conferences by politicians are great, but they go away after the midterms. Things stay the same.

Dilley was founded by Obama and kept open by Biden for three years. What's required is this mass movement from below, which we're beginning to see in this country. That has to continue to find independent expression. And I think that the fact that these children are risking everything, they could be separated from their families, they could be deported in retribution for participating. If they're standing up and speaking out, then that is a message to the population of the country and the world.

Immigration attorney Eric Lee joining us tonight. Eric, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. As our country observes the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this year, Judy Woodruff is kicking off a new chapter in her series, America at a crossroads. This year, she'll explore what it means to be an American, how that idea has evolved since the nation's founding and where we might be headed. She begins by looking at how closely our identity

as Americans hues to the template created by war hero and first president, George Washington. We refer to this as our smoking gun letter, because you can start to see him thinking about the fact that because he's an American, he's actually a second-class citizen. Inside a temperature control vault, historian Lindsay Chervinsky is showing me a letter written by a then 25-year-old commander of the Virginia Regiment, George Washington. He'd been fighting alongside the British during the French and Indian War and was angry at the lack of royal commissions for him and his fellow Virginia officers. We think about what it means to be a full-fledged citizen.

We think about economic participation, political participation, but also can you advance on your own merits? And he has this realization early that he's not going to in the British system. Nearly two decades before the American Revolution, Washington foreshadowed the collision with Britain that would lead to the creation of the United States and our identity as Americans, a question that 250 years later, many continue to wrestle with. Being an American means being able to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, unimpeded. Believing in those ideals that were set up at the founding of our nation, that's what being an American is. We asked our viewers about being an American and the responsibilities that come with that identity.

In order to be a citizen, that is an active job description. You need to learn. You need to understand and you need to participate. To live by who got elected, you know, all the various viewpoints that people have, don't have to embrace them, but you have to live with them. We are a nation of immigrants and, you know, except for those that are fully Native American, at some point in the last 15 generations, our ancestors immigrated here. We're the beacon on the hill, everybody wants to come here. Everybody has opportunity, no matter who you want.

are, come, do your best, and you can succeed. There was never one answer to the question of what is an American. Chervinsky is the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library and the author of two books on the founding fathers, including the cabinet, George Washington, and the creation of an American institution. They didn't necessarily agree amongst themselves as to what was the ideal American, what was the right culture, the right religion, the right economy, who belonged in that equation. And from the founding, of course, most people of color were excluded, most women were excluded.

Native Americans were seen as sort of a separate entity. And then over the course of American history, this has evolved and changed. So it should give comfort to people that we've never had a clear answer. After the Revolutionary War was over, Washington returned here to his estate at Mount Verne. He had about 8,000 acres when he died. The nascent nation was struggling under the weak articles of confederation. And in 1787, Washington became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The view that emerged was that this country, rather than 13, squabbling colonies, needed

a strong central government. Why did George Washington come to believe that was the right answer? Well, they believed that they needed a strong central government. central government, but they also believed that they needed what they called an energetic executive. Washington and many of the other military officers understood how inept Congress was because it had failed to raise money for the Army. And so they really believed in a stronger national government. They were sort of early nationalists in a in a true sense of the word. Washington supported ratification of the new constitution that created branches of government.

Congress in Article 1 and an executive or president in Article 2. Everyone knew that if this worked, he was going to be the first president. No dissension. No dissension. Everyone knew. And so when we look at Article 2, it's very short, especially compared to Article 1. And I think, and I think a lot of historians believe that a lot of the silence there is because they just figured he would figure it out once in office. and they trusted him to establish precedents and norms

that would be good for the future of the nation. As president, Washington was committed to civilian control of the military, the peaceful transition of power, and the idea that everyone is held of the same laws. But as a wealthy landowner in Virginia, Washington also embodied the contradictions at the heart of our founding documents, including the idea that all men are created equal,

while codifying enslaved people as unequal, including the more than 300 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon at the time of George Washington's death in 1799. They continued to sort of buy and sell without thinking about the implications for the people that they were buying and selling until the revolution. And then in the record we can see a pretty distinct shift in how Washington thinks about slavery. First, he is interacting with free black. communities in places like Philadelphia and Baltimore and Boston. He was also seeing different types of agricultural production. He also was interacting with ardent abolitionists, including the

Marquita Lafayette, who was very outspoken about his distaste for slavery. But lastly, and I think most importantly, by the end of the war, some estimates suggest that about 30% of the Continental Army was black. In his will, Washington stated that the people on his estate that he controlled would be free upon his wife's death. There's a lot that he didn't do. He didn't speak out against slavery as president. He did continue to track down people who had run away, and it is in no way an excuse or a justification for all of the people that he did hold in bondage.

But he knew his will was going to be a public document, and he knew it was going to be a major statement. Chervinsky sees Washington's evolution on slavery as a reminder that the founding fathers expected things to change. They didn't think what they were creating was perfect. They genuinely believed that they were trying to create something that was just a little bit better than what they had had before.

They had all made compromises to try and ensure ratification. And they understood that there were problems they were sweeping under the rug. They could not figure out how to solve the issue of slavery. They also knew that there were problems they couldn't possibly foresee, because they didn't have the ability to predict the future. And I think what they hoped

was even if the Constitution didn't survive forever, that the Republic would survive because each generation was willing to embrace that challenge to try and make the nation just a little bit better. We as Americans have found our way to pull up our bootstraps in times of dire need and in times of stress. I believe the civil rights movement was overall success, right?

The women's suffrage was a success. We can vote now. We have basic. rights, I think that we still have a lot of work to do. I think the Congress should be expanded. The House of Representatives should be expanded to represent more people. We have really given up on filing amendments to make our system more adaptable to where the world is going, the way society is going, particularly now in the 21st century. I'm still sad about the Equal Rights Amendment because that's simple, two-paragraph language.

If that had been adopted, it would have covered everybody. Thank you for your service, founding fathers. Great job. But now it's time to evolve. Modern polling tells us we are extremely divided along partisan lines. And while feelings of pride and being an American remain relatively high, they have fallen significantly from almost unanimous levels in the mid-80s. And those declines in the last decade have mostly been among Democrats and

independence. So this is Washington's study. This was his most private space when he was here at Mount Vernon. It was where he did a lot of his thinking about the presidency, where he reflected on things like his farewell address. In 1796, George Washington published a farewell address that first and foremost announced that he would not seek a third term as president. He believed it was essential that that first transition happened while he was alive and happened in an intentional way so it would be less chaotic, but also so that he was establishing a precedent that presidents didn't serve for life. The address also provided warnings to his fellow Americans for the future,

cautioning against foreign entanglements, regionalism, and partisanship. At this point, Washington wasn't actually opposed to political organizing. He was saying don't allow political parties to break the bonds of citizenship. It seems so prescient. It's unbelievably prudent. Today, as we are so divided. Yes. And somehow George Washington anticipated that. He did. You know, our divisions and our partisan rancor have been something that have come up again and again over the course of the last 250 years. And so he was certainly living. it in the 1790s, and I don't know that he would have been terribly surprised that it came up again and again, but I do think that he would hope we could find a way to put that American identity above the others.

It was a revolutionary thing to do to form a nation based on an idea because it has survived and maybe we've become a little bit jaded about it. It doesn't make it any less revolutionary. This visit to Mount Vernon, reflecting on George Washington's influence on the country to be, is just the start of our plan for a year. year-long inquiry as America observes its 250th. We'll be sitting down with more people from across the country to ask how they see their role as Americans, especially at this deeply divided moment. And we'll be looking for lessons from history to how we begin to reach that more perfect union. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Judy Woodruff in Mount Vernon, Virginia. 40 years ago today, the Challenger space shuttle exploded on live television just 73 seconds after liftoff.

All seven astronauts aboard died, including Krista McCullough, the first teacher and ordinary citizen to fly in space, plunging the nation into morning. I spoke with our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, who has covered the space program for decades, about that moment and how it changed the country for our video podcast, Settle in. Here's some of that conversation. Why was this particular launch? Why did it capture the public's imagination in a way that previous launches hadn't? It was all about the teacher, Jeff, Krista McColliffe, elementary school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire,

who had participated in a nationwide contest to become the first teacher in space. She was a fabulous, interesting character and won the rights to fly on the shuttle as the shuttle program, toward allowing civilians to fly in space. And they were leaning toward trying to show the world that the space shuttle system was routine and could get people to space, everyday people to space in a relatively inexpensive way. 1986, they had 15 flights on the manifest,

way, way beyond anything it had attempted in the past. It was going to launch spy satellites, commercial satellites, scientific missions, and they were really kind of hell-bent to prove that this system was reliable enough for a teacher to fly and give lessons. And so the world was fixated on that after 24 previous flights. The first flight, of course, in 1981 got a lot of attention. And then many of the flights fell off the front page of the newspapers. But this one really captured hearts and minds and pointedly, sadly, was watched by hundreds of thousands of school kids in their classrooms that morning. You happened to be there that day. Set the scene for us. What was it like?

Well, I wasn't quite there. I was, but I was close enough. You have to remember, this was a record cold snap in Florida. 100-year record. I was a 26-year-old green reporter working in local news in Tampa, Florida. And I had spent the entire night in a citrus grove doing live reports with a grower who was worried about losing his crops because of the bitter cold. It was down in the teens. And in Florida, that's something that people remember. And after a full night of work, I went to sleep and was awakened by the assignment editor at my station saying the shuttle has exploded and I couldn't even process that. And I went outside in my house, at my house in Tampa, and I looked up in this impossibly blue sky

and I could see the remnants of the contrail of Challenger. And it was like a big giant Y in the sky. I mean, this is 150 miles away. And it just kind of hung there like a pall over the state. and the city. And so I got busy doing the local news assignment, but it's hard to overstate how much of a shock this was to the country. Up until that time, NASA, despite the fact that it had a terrible accident in 1967,

the Apollo 1 accident, where three crew members were incinerated on a launch pad during a test. But that was out of public view. This was something everyone saw instantly, was, was broadcast live on CNN, and the world watched it, and children were connected to it. And there was a profound sense of loss of innocence, I think, for NASA, which at that point, really in the public's mind, could do no wrong. A loss of innocence for NASA. I mean, did it feel like the nation and the world and mourning and real time? What was the immediate aftermath like? Yeah, it was appall. And, you know, Ronald Reagan was supposed to

to deliver his State of the Union address that night. And for a time, he thought they thought they would press on and actually give that address. But eventually, they canceled the State of the Union. And instead, he gave an Oval Office speech that was authored by his famous speech writer, Peggy Noonan. The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger honored us for the manner in which they lived their lives.

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning. as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. It was a collective tragedy that I think at that point only rivaled the assassination of JFK. And you can find that full conversation and all episodes of Settle In from PBS News on our YouTube page and wherever you get your podcasts. And there's a lot more online, including a breakdown of an ongoing trial where social media giants are being accused of harming minors by making their platforms addictive. That's at pbs.org slash news hour. And that is The NewsHour 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.