PBS News Hour - Full Show - January 5, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Monday on the News Hour, as Nicolás Maduro appears in court after being captured by U.S. forces, we have views from Venezuela and in neighboring Colombia. A top aide to opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize-winner María Corina Machado on the future of Venezuela's leadership. Plus, despite pediatricians' objections, the CDC cuts back on the number of vaccines it recommends for children. 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, the opposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appears in federal court after being captured by U.S. forces. We get views from on the ground in Venezuela and in neighboring Colombia. Then a top aide to opposition figure, a Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Karina Machado, who's been sidelined by President Trump. What is the future of Venezuela's leadership? Plus, the CDC cuts back on the number of vaccines it recommends for children, despite pediatricians' objections. It's really based not on any kind of science or evidence, but simply a political ideology. Welcome to the News Hour. Nicholas Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, appeared alongside his wife. before a federal judge in New York today, saying, quote, I'm innocent, I am not guilty, I am a decent man,

the president of my country. Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, were taken by American forces early Saturday on orders of President Trump and flown to the U.S. Withero also told the judge he was, quote, kidnapped from his home in Caracas. His lawyers are expected to argue he was illegally arrested and is immune from prosecution.

Tonight in Washington, Trump administration officials are briefing members of Congress who were not notified before the Saturday operation on what will come next. Nick Schifrin has more. Today, the dictator turned detainee became the defendant. Osted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appeared in federal court, facing charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. Back in the country he led for more than a decade, where the U.N. says 80 percent of the

population lives in poverty, his handpicked successor seemed to handover control. control to the United States. Newly inaugurated President Delcid Rodriguez wrote last night, we invite the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented toward shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence. Rodriguez is under explicit threat from President Trump. I just say that she will face a situation probably worse than Bjorie. And she is also navigating internal pressures from the leaders of the

military and intelligence service, all of them still considered proud inheritors of anti-American nationalism. We're dealing with the people. We're dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don't ask me, who's in charge? Because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very contrary. What does that mean? Because we're in charge.

Who are those people who will be running the country specifically? Well, it's not running, it's running policy, the policy with regards to this. This weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio softened claims of control. U.S. officials make clear there will be no occupation force, only gunboat diplomacy, what Rubio called the largest armada ever assembled in the Western Hemisphere. That's enabled 30 strikes on what the U.S. calls narco-terrorist drugboats, as well as the capture of two sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and the chasing of a third tanker, which requested Russian protection, and Russia asked the U.S. not to seize.

There's a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments. There's a boat and that boat is under U.S. sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it. That remains in place. And that's a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes, not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. President Trump's made clear the number one U.S. interest is Venezuela's oil. Venezuela 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, and today the industry produces a fraction of its capacity. The oil companies are ready to go. They're going to go in. They're going to rebuild the infrastructure. You know, we built it to start off with many years ago. They took it away.

You can't do that. When is the U.S. nation building now? Is that a country that's on the other side of the world? This isn't a country like we have to travel 24 hours in an airplane. This is Venezuela. It's in our area. The Don Roe Doctrine. The Don Roe Doctrine, embracing the early 19th century declaration by President Monroe

to block foreign colonialism in the Americas. And in that sense, the middle of the night assault on a foreign capital, the military capture and public humiliation of a foreign leader, is a new day of American regional domination, complete with explicit threats across the region against Colombia's president. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it for it. So there will be an operation by the U.S. and me. It sounds good to me.

Cuba. Yeah, look, I've lived in Havana and I was in the government. I'd be concerned. Mexico. Mexico has to get there packed together because they're boring through Mexico and we're going to have to do something. And even Greenland, an autonomous territory within NATO. NATO ally Denmark.

We need Greenland for the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It's true. Last night, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens Frederick Nielsen posted, this is enough, no more pressure, no more innuendo, no more fantasies about annexation. defiance echoed today by Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum.

It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico, the people are in charge and that we are a free, independent, and sovereign country. Cooperation, yes. Subordination and intervention, no. And what isn't mentioned in the Don Roe doctrine, democracy. Or the thousands of Venezuelans who this weekend celebrated the end of Maduro. Today, opposition leader Maria Karina Machado posted this video, despite being criticized by President Trump, writing, The Freedom of Venezuela is near, and soon we will celebrate on our land.

We will shout, pray and embrace as a family because our children will return home. How that home will look and who will be in charge, still unclear, as the world tonight is still asking the question. Now what? For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schiffen. now we return to Venezuela for a report from the ground. We're joined again tonight by Mary Trinimina of Feature Story News in Caracas. Mary, it's good to see you again. Yesterday, you described your reporting on the ground as you talked to people there. You said the two words

you would use to describe the mood would be shock and concern. How would you describe what it feels like today? What are you hearing? Well, so far, people are keep following the news and today there was the officer delsi rodriguez became officially the president of Venezuela so that for many Venezuelans that had the chance to see it was a sign that the country is moving on to a new era even though there are these are the same faces that they have been seen for the past decade because many of the members of this new government are loyalists to the government of Nicolas Maduro Delsi Rodriguez, when she was swearing in, she said that she received this presidency with

pride and pain. Mary, how much confidence is there in people that things will be any different with Delci Rodriguez as president, who, as you mentioned, was Maduro's vice president? Well, I believe this is a country that have sustained a long-standing political crisis. So for Venezuela, this type of episode are not new. They are used to handle difficult situations in the economic side, in the political side, and they are being very cautious with the changes throughout the years. So they tend to adapt to difficult situations and to move on, especially because of the

deepening economic crisis. And that is a big issue here in the country. By all this is happening, the difference between the dollar and the Bolivar is spreading. So people are more concerned on the ends mean to put four on the tables that other things on politics. Of course they are concerned because of that, but they are more focused on the economy side. Mary, meanwhile, the big news here in the United States, of course, was Maduro appearing in court for his arraignment?

Are any of those images, those videos, making those. way into Venezuela? Are people paying attention? And if so, how are they watching those? Well, right now, most of the TV stations are broadcasting what the state channel is doing here inside of Venezuela. So the state channel did mention the situation in the New York court. They portrayed the situation as it was unfair and presented a short message about the situation in New York, a short piece. They didn't last the entire session or how Maduro was transported to the court. They just show a few images.

They concentrate the programming today on showing the National Assembly that started this session of this year until 20131. And then the proclamation of Delzi Rodriguez as the new interim president of Venezuela. All right, that is Mary Trini Mina, joining us tonight from Caracas, Venezuela. Mary, thank you. Thank you for having me. Well, the situation in Venezuela's neighbor to the west, Colombia, is tense tonight. Though it's a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., President Trump has threatened its president, Gustavo Petro, repeatedly, alleging without evidence he has ties to the drug trade.

And millions of Venezuelans fled to Colombia during Maduro's rule and are following this weekend's events closely. Joining us now from Bogota, a special correspondent, Monica Villamizar. Thank you for being with us. So we know that Colombia is responding forcefully after President Trump suggested its president, and his words could be next following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. How are Colombian leaders and the public there interpreting and responding to President Trump's statement? President Pedro, there is absolutely no proof. He has no indictment for drug trafficking.

He sits at the polar opposite of President Trump. He was a left-wing guerrilla fighter, but he demobilized with M-19 guerrilla group in the 90s. And I say this because today he said he's left arms back in the 90s, but he is willing to pick them up again and ready to defend his country if it is attacked. So very strong words from the president and the government. They have been very critical about what happened in Venezuela as well. And, you know, like other Latin American leaders, they stand by the claims that, you know, this is against international law and the country's sovereignty. As for the Colombian people, likewise. Many people here are thinking this is a colonial attitude.

You know, the United States has, Latin America has been sort of the backyard for the United States and people are not happy with such blatant interference, like removing a president, even though he was not a popular one in the case of Venezuela. But also, very right-wing Colombians are growing, I must say, increasingly worried about Petro and they say he has tendencies that are showing that he is increasingly populist and may perhaps want to remain in power. There's upcoming elections May 31st. So there's a lot going on here in Colombia as well. Well, give us some background on the Trump-Petro relationship. Where did this tension begin? Absolutely. Like I said, they sit at polar opposites, right? Petro is a very left-wing

leaning president, they started having frictions back when the mass deportations started taking place. If you remember, there were planes filled with Colombians, undocumented, arriving here, shackled, and Petro said, this is not acceptable, this is not dignified. That's when it sort of all started. And then the sort of highest point was back in September at the National Assembly in New York. Petro criticized the drug policy of President Donald. Trump and the White House. And then he joined a rally in New York in the streets. He took a megaphone. It was a pro-Palestinian rally, I think. And he started saying, I call on the U.S. soldiers to

disobey their commander-in-chief. And that obviously caused a lot of rage in President Trump and the American government, obviously, in general. They placed them on what we call the Clinton list colloquially. It's basically, they removed his visa, and he cannot conduct any transactions with individuals, corporations, or companies that use the American financial system. Colombia hosts the world's largest Venezuelan diaspora, millions of people displaced by the Maduro government. What are Venezuelans living in Colombia telling you right now? That's a great point. And let me remind you that we don't know the exact number of Venezuelans living here, but it's estimated that it could be up to three million people. A lot of them are

documented. A lot of them are not. When Maduro was flown out of Venezuela, I can tell you, I heard people honking their horns in the street right underneath this rooftop. I heard a friend telling me that her neighbors were screaming, we're going to pack our bags, and we're going to return. But I think those attitudes have been much tempered recently because our correspondent, Caracas said, people are now wondering, wait, was there a regime change? Can we go back? A lot of people see Delsi Rodriguez and her brother, Jorge, who is the head of the assembly, let's remember, as a continuation very much of the Maduro regime, which is the continuation of the Chavez Bolivarian Revolution, you know, put in place in 1999 when Chavez modified

the Constitution. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar joining us from Bogota tonight. Thanks again for your time. Thank you. The White House seems to be working with the remnants of the Maduro regime after Saturday's raid. But for decades, there's been robust opposition to the governments of Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro. Among the principal leaders of that opposition now is Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Carino Machado. And one of her top aides is David Smolanski, who joins me here in the studio. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me. So, as you saw in our report there, obviously Maduro's former vice president, Delti Rodriguez, has now been sworn in as acting president. You heard President Trump also say we, meaning the U.S. are in charge of Venezuela. Is it clear to you who is running the country right now? Rodriguez or President Trump? Well, first of all, I have to say that what we are seeing today in New York is something that Venezuelans wanted for years. Nine of ten Venezuelans wanted Maduro not only out of power but to face justice.

I have to say that this country is guaranteed rights to Maduro and his wife, like for example having an attorney, something that Maduro never did. Maduro illegally detained 20,000 innocent Venezuelans during the last decade and most of them were physically, psychologically, torture didn't have a right for attorney or a family visit or something. So I wanted to start with that, and I think the operation that happened in my country in January 3rd was clean, was smooth, was fast, and the vast majority of Venezuelans are grateful with President Trump and the U.S. administration about this operation.

You're glad they took that step. Yeah, definitely. It's a huge step. Specifically on your question. Yes. Every transition at the beginning is messy. There are plenty of examples in Latin America and all the parts of the world. In the case of Venezuela, this is a regime that has been 27 years in power, not on

only committing crimes against humanity and human rights violations, but also they destroyed completely the economy, and almost 9 million people fled them as well. The legitimacy and the credibility is on Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez, not once but twice. The Cori Macho won a primary election with 93% of the vote. She was illegally banned for Browning. She endorsed President-elect Mundo Gonzalez. She was elected with 70% of the vote, despite it was a...

not transparent election. We proved we won. Those tallies, by the way, are today preserved in Panama. And I don't have any doubt that Maria Corrina Machia and President Edmund Gonzalez are going to lead the rebuild of Venezuela. Delsi Rodriguez is a thought. Delsi Rodriguez is sanctioned here in the U.S. is sanctioned in Canada. She's sanctioned in the European Union. She's part of the Sons Cartel. She was one of the mastermind to open Venezuela's doors to Iran, Cuba, Russia, and China, and she's not trustworthy to work. I hear you saying Machado has support on the ground, but when President Trump was asked specifically about her leadership, as you all know, he dismissed her.

He said she doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect. Why do you think he's stumped her that way? Well, on that regard, and would you respect with President Trump, I had a disagreement on that point. But do you think she needs to win his confidence to be able to lead Venezuela? She's got all the confidence from the people and the credibility. It's just out of this world what she has done since 2023. I mean, she's been in this fight for years, but more specifically in

2023 when she was elected as a democratic movement leader. So she's got the legitimacy. She sent a message today very clear. She will call for some actions during the next days. We heard also from President-elect in Mundo González. and Alec and Mundo Gonzalez is a very important statement asking for the release of political prisoners because I have to remember that there are more than 800 political prisoners in Venezuela that as we speak they are psychologically torture and physically torture and this is something

that we're speaking with the administration and this is something that we're speaking in Congress and we're speaking with all the governments in the world because I want to remember that there's a global coalition supporting the democratic movement in Venezuela. In Latin America, there is Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Panama, the Dominican Republic Guatemala, there is the EU or the vast majority of the EU members, the UK, Canada, Israel, Morocco. There are many countries that are supporting our democratic movement. And these are the topics that also we are discussing with this administration.

And we are ready to govern and we are ready to lead. And yet this administration is now saying they are in charge. So I wonder, has Maria Kriyana Machado spoken directly with President Trump? So Maduro was asked. There are communications. have been directly in contact. There are communications with the administration. We have presented, for example, the $1.7 trillion opportunity.

We believe after the regime destroyed our oil industry, we believe that the old industry needs to be privatized. We believe in private property. We believe in private companies. We believe in free market. We believe that the U.S. could be our best ally on energy because we want to have U.S. companies working in Venezuela and Western Hemisphere companies working in Venezuela. So you support President Trump when he says we want to invite U.S. companies into Venezuela.

Well, because in the case of Venezuela that has the largest oil reserve in the world, when we talk about energy and democracy, are not excluded. I mean, U.S. oil companies in Venezuela have been in my country for over a century. So this is not for us something new. So it's not something that goes distant from democracy. And by the way, I mean, the deal. damage that Iranians and Russians and Chinese and even Cubans have made to specifically the oil industry has been very profound and that needs to change and we need a more reliable ally on that.

As we saw President Trump when he first announced the arrest that we're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. He's also just told NBC a short while ago that he does not see new elections happening in Venezuela for at least 30 days. So how do you see this playing out? Well, the elections already happened. We won. The vast majority of Venezuelans elected. You don't believe there needs to be a new election now?

Well, that's something that, again, when that transition happens, the beginning are messy. Obviously, there needs to be a transition government, and then, because according to our constitution, need to call for an election. But what is important here, and I want to remark, is that there's no doubt for a government. the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans within the country and outside the country, that the legitimacy is on Maria Corina Machal and the president-elect is Edmundo Gonzalez. And we're working very hard to keep increasing that global alliance that we have built for this month. And that's how you see that not many are crying that Maduro is now facing justice in New York,

because the world knows the atrocities that he committed. Let me ask you how worried you might be that the U.S. government will just continue to work with Delsi Rodriguez if they find her leadership to be compliant, which is the word we keep hearing from this administration, and will continue to sideline, Machado. She won't be able to deliver that because the armed forces in Venezuela were humiliated by the impeccable operation that the U.S. did on January 3rd. She's not trustworthy. As I said, she's illegal, she's individually sanctioned in Canada, in the U and in the U.S. And she has President Trump support right now.

And she's a member of the drug cartel. Well, President Trump was very clear to say that she could end worse than Maduro. So I wouldn't say that she's got the support completely from President Trump. I mean, she's under a real pressure, not only from the U.S., but also internally because The regime right now is almost completely cracked after what happened on January 3rd. They are completely demoralized. The armed forces didn't have any capacity to respond on this operation. And it was proven, by the way, something that we denounced for years, that the security of

Nicolas Maduro and his wife was run by the Cubans, which is not something small to say. We were already a nation invaded by foreign actors, and in this specific case of Cuba, when this relation started with Chavez and Thiel Castro. As you say, messy for sure, very uncertain. We hope you'll come back and continue this conversation as we follow the news on the ground. David Smolensky, good to have you here. Thank you for having you. Now, to a different view of the American capture of Maduro and the apparent wider regional ambitions,

the president outlined. For that, I spoke earlier with Jorge Castaneda, who served as Mexico's, foreign minister in the early 2000s and is now distinguished professor of politics in Latin American and Caribbean studies at New York University. He spoke with us from Mexico City and a note that the connection was unstable. I started by asking him what he believes the U.S. priority is in Venezuela right now. Well, I think the primary one is, was to get rid of Nicolas Maduro as president of that country and to have a government in place in Venezuela

that is more amenable to American interests. Those American interests being geopolitical in terms of having Venezuela less close to China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba. They are resource-based access to Venezuela and oil and other minerals, and they are also in terms of obtaining perhaps some form of compensation

for oil companies that were expropriated 10, 15 years ago. Those seem to be the immediate objectives. I don't take the drug trafficking charges seriously. Now, in a broader sense, this seems to be what President Trump himself of the return of American domination in the work that's interested in, and in particular, establishing a Trump corollary of the monroe doctrine, that is that foreign powers should not be present in Latin America, and that basic shot.

Well, on that point, we heard the Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth frame the Trump approach to Venezuela this past weekend, saying that President Trump sets the terms. he will be able to dictate where we go next. What does that tell you about the administration's theory of leverage and control in Caracas? Well, it's a very strange statement of purpose because sometimes you can actually do that, but most of the time you have to have troops on the ground in order to enforce what you are requesting. Now, in this case, of course, you can threaten to take out the new president, Delphi Rodriguez, and then if she is replaced, let's say, by her brother, Jorge, threatened to take him out if he doesn't comply.

But at some point, you can't keep doing these operations. They are very expensive. They are very dangerous. And at some point, you have to have the leverage to force the Venezuelan government to do what you wanted to do without having a military presence. We have never really seen too many cases of this in modern history. Even in France and World War II, under Vichy, which was similar to what the United States seems to be doing, the German occupation in the north of France was very important. The same has been true in other countries at other moments. It's kind of governing Venezuela

from Washington by remote control or on the web. I'm not sure that's entirely feasible. A day after the Maduro operation, President Trump renewed calls for a U.S. takeover of Greenland. He threatened military action against Colombia over cocaine trafficking. His Secretary of State warned that the communist government in Cuba, in his words, is in a lot of trouble. He said that Mexico has to get its act together. How do you interpret this burst of interventionist rhetoric? Eric, and what does it signal about the administration's evolving posture in the Western

Hemisphere? Well, I think the first thing is you have to take it seriously because they said they would do something in Venezuela in order to take out Maduro, and they did. I both regret and applaud that they did. I regret it because this is a unilateral action that violates international law, and I applaud it because they got rid of a dictator who stole an election. Those two things go together. But you have to take these threats seriously because President Trump has shown that he is willing

to put his money where his mouth in. Now, what exactly can he accomplish? The case of Colombia, for example, this is a democratically elected president in a democratic country, a strong civil society. I'm not sure he can take Petro out the way he took Maduro out. Obviously, the same is true in Mexico. He can pressure President Seenbaum to do more or do differently, deal differently with the drug cartels, but I don't think they have any intention of removing President Seymbaum or unilaterally taking military action in Mexico.

That we have to take all of this seriously because, unfortunately, President Trump has proved that he actually, on occasion, does what he says. Jorge Castaneda, thank you for your time this evening and for pushing through with these technical issues and our connection to you. We appreciate it. In the day's other headlines, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a letter of censure today against Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who retired from the Navy with a rank of captain. In a social media post, Hegseth said the proceedings could lead to a reduction in his retired grade, resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay. But the move stops short of recalling Kelly to active duty. and prosecuting him. You can refuse illegal orders.

In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers released a video calling on U.S. troops to resist what they called illegal orders. Kelly called today's decision outrageous, adding that Pete Hegeseth and Donald Trump don't get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government. Minnesota Governor Tim Wall says he's dropping his bid

for a third term. His decision comes amid a widening fraud scandal involving the state's child care programs, Wals has faced increasing scrutiny from President Trump and other top Republicans over his handling of the investigation. Today, Walsh, who was the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate back in 2024, said that given the challenges Minnesota is facing,

he, in his words, can't give a political campaign his all. Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who pray on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences. A person close to Democratic, Senator Amy Klobuchar, said today that she is considering a bid to replace walls. She reportedly met with him over the weekend.

About a dozen Republicans have already entered the race. In Texas, jury selection began today in the first criminal trial over the slow law enforcement response to the Yvaldi School shooting. Former Yvaldi Schools Officer Adrian Gonzalez is charged with failing to protect children during the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers. He was among the first of nearly 400 officers to arrive on the scene at Rob Elementary in 2022. They waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman.

Gonzalez faces 29 counts of child endangerment and abandonment. He's pleaded not guilty. In Ohio, the Secret Service says it has detained a man who attacked the home of Vice President J.D. Vance. Sources tell the Associated Press that agents heard a loud noise around midnight and found a person who had broken a window with a hammer and was trained. trying to enter the house. A secret service vehicle was also damaged. Court records show a 26-year-old from Kentucky is set to be arraigned tomorrow on misdemeanor

charges of vandalism, criminal trespass, and others. Vance and his family were not at home at the time. Turning overseas now, Swiss police say they've identified all 116 people who were injured in last week's New Year's Eve fire in the resort town of Kronz, Montana. More than 80 of them are still in the hospital. comes a day after authorities said they had identified all 40 people who died in the blaze. In Milan, today, the bodies of some of the six Italian victims of the tragedy returned home. Swiss authorities say they've launched a criminal investigation into the managers of the bar.

They face charges of involuntary homicide, among other charges. On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher amid hopes that U.S. energy companies will soon be able to access Venezuela's massive oil reserves. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 600 points to close at a new all-time high. The NASDAQ added around 160 points. The S&P 500 also ended higher on the day. And Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor and the stepsister of Anne Frank has died. Schloss was born in Vienna in 1929. After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, she and her family fled to the Netherlands,

where Schloss became friends with her neighbor, Anne Frank. Their families both hid from the Nazis, but were eventually captured and sent to the Auschwitz death camp. Schloss and her mother were the only survivors in her family, a reality she was, quote, never quite able to accept. Schloss reflected on her personal tragedies in 2019. I realized that it is important that people should never, ever forget what has happened and how it came about. We have to learn from the history, the mistakes we have made, and try to make a safer, a better world for everybody. After the war ended, Eva Schloss's mother married Otto Frank and Frank's father.

In her later years, Sloss lived in the U.K. with her husband and three children and became a prominent Holocaust educator and author. In a statement today, her family called her a remarkable woman. Eva Schloss was 96 years old. Still to come on the news hour, the overhaul of vaccine guidance from the government and what it means for families. And Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the political implications of the president's huckish foreign policy. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News.

In a major departure from past practice, the CDC is scaling back the number of recommended vaccines for children, reducing it from 17 to 11. The new schedule recommends that flu and COVID vaccines only be given after consulting with a health care provider. It also narrows recommendations for hepatitis A and B, RSV, and bacterial meningitis to what it considers higher risk groups. The decision aligns the U.S. more closely with Denmark and Japan, something that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long wanted. And it follows a directive from President Trump just one month ago to move in that direction. There are major concerns about what this could all mean, and for more on that, we're joined now by Dr. Sean O'Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Colorado and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. So before we get to the impact, I want to know more about how we got here. What should we know about how this decision was made and who was involved in it?

Yeah, you know, this was really arbitrary. And this, let me be clear, this was not from any CDC scientists. This was really a political move. You know, as you may know, our HHS secretary has for decades really been a leader in spreading falsehoods and, frankly, you know, lies about vaccines. And now he's running our health care system. And so this, what we saw today is just one more step in his ongoing dismantling of the U.S. vaccination program. So what's the potential impact of narrowing?

the vaccination schedule? What has pediatricians so concerned? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, what diseases does he want to see children suffer from? I mean, that's what we're talking about here. The vaccines that he is scaling back are vaccines that save lives that prevent thousands of hospitalizations. So, you know, I would ask the secretary, what diseases do you want to see children suffer from? I really don't understand this move. It's really based not on any kind of science or evidence, but simply a political ideology. The CDC is recommending that decisions on vaccinations against the flu, COVID-19, and rhodovirus be based on what it calls shared clinical decision-making.

And this is, of course, coming amid a sharp increase in flu cases across the country. Some 45 states saw high flu activity over the Christmas holiday season, and there have been at least nine pediatric deaths from flu this season. What does shared clinical decision-making mean if apparently, wants to get their kid a flu shot? Sure. You know, changing the recommendation to that may sound good at, you know, on its surface. But frankly, that's what pediatricians do all day every day is talking with families about

vaccines and help the families make these decisions. What this is doing is really just creating a lot of confusion, creating different tiers for vaccine recommendations that are going to be confusing not only for parents, but for clinicians, frankly. And really, as you mentioned, you know, influenza is causing a lot of ill. this year. We had the most pediatric deaths in decades last year. So this is a really tone-deaf change in the midst of a pretty severe flu season. I should also add that the flu vaccine, this year's flu vaccine seems to be very effective at preventing severe disease in children.

So far as we know, could someone still walk into a pharmacy and get a flu shot or a COVID shot without a doctor's note? Well, you know, that's where a lot of the confusion comes in. We've already seen what happened in the fall with some of the confusing recommendations that were coming out of HHS with patients who wanted to get vaccinated being turned away. This is only going to add to that confusion. They're saying they're not taking away access, but the reality is once these recommendations come down and filter through our health care system, there's going to be a lot of confusion and there's going to be there are going to be a lot of people who can't get the vaccines that they want. The Trump administration cites Denmark as a model,

a developed nation with few routine childhood vaccines. Denmark's system, I would imagine, works well for Denmark, but is it actually comparable to the U.S.? Yeah, I mean, I've heard a lot of analogies. My favorite is that you can't, it's like comparing a kayak to a cruise ship. You know, Denmark is the size roughly of Wisconsin. They've got a very different health care system. From what I'm hearing from the leaders of Denver's public health system is they think

what's going on here in the U.S. is madness. They historically have looked to us for guidance. And, you know, in the press conference that HHS gave today, they described the U.S. as an outlier. Denmark themselves, I've heard them describe themselves as outliers. We're actually more similar to a lot of countries in our vaccine recommendations, similar to Germany, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, several other countries. So, you know, this idea that we are an outlier is simply false. You mentioned that HHS statement.

I want to read more from it. It says, the U.S. is a global outlier among developed nations and both the number of diseases addressed in its routine childhood vaccination schedule and the total number of recommended doses, but does not have higher vaccination rates than such countries. In fact, many peer nations that recommend fewer routine vaccines maintain high vaccination rates through public trust and education rather than mandates. What do you make of that argument? Yeah, you know, it's really disturbing irony that the,

that they are making these claims, that they're doing this to restore trust, when these are exactly the same people who have been working for decades to so fear and so distrust in vaccines, that they're making this move to improve trust. That's just completely false. The, you know, the HHS secretary himself has been suing distrust for decades. So I don't buy that argument at all. and the idea that somehow this maneuver is going to raise vaccination coverage because of what they're doing, that makes no logical sense. The fact is, the vast majority of U.S. parents vaccinate their children according to the recommended schedule.

Prior to the pandemic, we had greater than 95% coverage for most routine childhood vaccines. That took a hit during the pandemic for a lot of reasons, including a lot of access to care issues, insurance issues. And then, of course, a lot of the fallout from, you know, what we saw with the pandemic, with, you know, attitudes about COVID and COVID vaccines becoming polarized. Some of that has spilled over into routine childhood vaccinations. But the fact is, most parents still vaccinate their children according to the recommended schedule. So this idea that this maneuver is somehow restoring trust is simply false. And for parents who want to keep their children on the previous more comprehensive vaccine schedule, what should they do?

Yeah. You know, so HHS is really, you know, unfortunately, some of what they're doing has legal implications in terms of access and coverage and who stocks what vaccines. But in terms of, you know, being able to trust them, we can no longer trust our federal government for vaccine recommendations. And that's a real tragedy. You know, fortunately, a lot of the professional societies are stepping forward. And we are making our own, we are making our own recommendations. So the American Academy of Pediatrics has been made. making vaccine recommendations since well before the federal government since the 1930s. We're going to continue to publish our schedule every year. The American Academy of Family Physicians is similar. The American College of Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. We're all working together to continue to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations. So at this point in time, I would say trust your pediatrician, trust the professional societies, do not trust the federal government about vaccine recommendations.

Dr. Sean O'Leary, thanks for your time. Thank you. Well, lawmakers return to Washington this week, facing the fallout from U.S. military action in Venezuela, as well as a shutdown deadline and a health care fight ahead. To discuss that and more, we are joined by our Politics Monday team. That is Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. Tam, I want to begin with you. I want to start with Venezuela, which, of course, we've been devoting most of this show to. You now have the former President Nicolas Maduro brought into a court in Manhattan earlier today, or rather in Brooklyn, after a U.S. military operation, grabbed him from his home, arrested him, flew him to America to be tried.

You see President Trump now saying the U.S. is in charge of Venezuela. And as we've been reporting, threatening action against Cuba and Colombia and Mexico and Greenland, this is the man who ran on America first. new wars. How do you square this? And I spent a good part of today going back through the archives of all of the things that President Trump has said over time. In 2016, in 2019, in 2020, in 2024, he campaigned on no intervention, no foreign wars, no regime change. The regime change was a mistake. Nation building doesn't work. And he really rode U.S. citizen anger with. with foreign wars into the White House.

It was one of his major attack points against Hillary Clinton, and again against Joe Biden, and also against Vice President Harris. And in office, especially in this second term, he has had a much more interventionist approach to foreign policy. Now, I did talk to an official who was part of the first Trump administration with a national security role today,

who said, this, This operation in Venezuela was, quote, extremely MAGA. And I was like, okay, really? How so? And what he said is that MAGA was never anti-interventionist. It was never isolationist. What it was is that it needed to be in the U.S. interest. And that Iraq and Afghanistan were not clearly in the U.S. interest

in the way that this operation was, tying it to. immigration, tying it to drugs, and also a real emphasis on this hemisphere, you know, President Trump's Don Row doctrine of the Monroe doctrine. Well, I can think of one person who disagrees that this is a MAGA kind of policy and move. That's Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green. Amy, I'll turn to you on this, and I want to play for you a little bit of sound from Marjorie Taylor Green, as we know is marking her last days in office. Obviously, we expected Democrats to oppose the military action in Venezuela, which they have, no. noting that Congress was not notified, there was no congressional approval for this,

but Marjorie Taylor Green also came out against this move by President. Trump, here's what she had to say. This is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn't serve the American people that actually serves the big corporations, the banks, and the oil executives. We don't consider Venezuela our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the southern hemisphere. atmosphere. Amy, what do you make of this new Trump doctrine and also that reaction from Marjorie

Taylor Green? Yeah. Well, it's notable that she really has been the only person in Congress on the Republican side to come out and publicly criticize this action. We saw votes taken actually right before the holiday break in the House, also calling on more congressional oversight in Venezuela. She was one of just three Republicans who voted. with Democrats on this. So there is not a big faction of Republicans right now, those who call

themselves MAGA or America First, who see what the president did as something that is not within that lane. Part of it, Omna, has been that MAGA and America First isn't necessarily an ideology. It's not a set of really clear principles or policies. It is what Donald Trump makes it to be. He is America First. America First is him. And he said such a thing after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities back in the summer of last year, he told the Atlantic exactly that. He said, America First is, I invented it, and it's basically what I say it is. So I'm not expecting to see a big rift among Republicans over this issue. Republicans are coming at it from all different angles, but they're basically lining up behind the president. One other really interesting

thing that I noted in looking through some polling back in November, late November, CBS had a poll asking about military intervention in Venezuela, and they broke it out among Republicans by those who identified as MAGA and those who identified not as MAGA. And to Tam's point about this being a very magified sort of operation, a significant majority, something like 66% of those who identified as MAGA, said they would support a military intervention. Less than half of the non-Maga thought the same thing. So I don't see this, even though Marjor Taylor Green has come out very strongly. I don't see a lot of Republicans who will follow suit. Meanwhile, back here in Washington, D.C., as lawmakers are returning, Tam, as you know, the enhanced

health care subsidies, they've been fighting over for many months, have officially expired. Now the House is going to vote on a three-year extension. Senators also working on some kind of a plan, but there is another government funding deadline looming at the end of the month. How are you looking at all of these forces colliding, and are we headed to another shutdown? I don't know how to predict the future on that one, but I do know that there's less of an appetite for a shutdown this time than there was in the fall. I think that the challenge with these Affordable Care Act subsidies is in order to get anything big done, it requires bipartisan compromise.

And bipartisan compromise simply hasn't happened in this Congress. It is not, it's not cool this time around. It's tough. And, you know, in past presidencies, past administrations, there have been big bipartisan bills, even when there was a lot of partisan and rancor. The challenge is that President Trump isn't interested in compromise. He's not here to compromise. And he has not shown much of an appetite for really pursuing what the moderates in the House are negotiating over or what, you know, a few Republicans in the House joined with Democrats to force a vote on. Amy, how are you looking at this? Yeah, you know, what's really

interesting, I've been making a lot of calls today around talking to Republican strategists about the impact that Venezuela may have in 2026. And fundamentally, really what it comes down to for many of them is that foreign policy, and I agree with this, that foreign policy tends to not have much of an impact when it comes to election time unless there are actually Americans involved or boots on the ground. But what it does do is it makes it look as if the president is spending more time doing foreign policy than domestic policy. Remember, the issue of affordability and health care fits into this has been the watchword for Democrats now, and they've used it successfully in winning elections in the 2025

election year. They are planning on using that in 2026 as well. If you're a Republican right now, and one of them said to me, the issue right now for Republicans isn't necessarily what happened to them. Venezuela, but it's the lack of tangible economic winds that people can feel week-to-week. The president can do both things, of course, administrations are big. They can walk and chew gum. You can have foreign policy, a next to domestic policy.

But what we've seen in poll after poll throughout this year, Omna, is voters believing that the president is spending a lot of time on issues that aren't directly addressing affordability and the cost of living. And it's not just polling. last year talking to a senior white house official they acknowledged that the president had spent so much time on foreign trips in that first year in office and they were going to do things differently and that he was going to get out into the country and he was going to talk about affordability and then happy new year there's this operation in venezuela happy new year indeed tamara keith

amy walter good to see you both thank you so much you're welcome you're welcome 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.