PBS News Hour - Full Show - March 23, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Monday on the News Hour, as President Trump teases a potential way to end the Iran war, we report from on the ground in the region. A deadly plane collision at LaGuardia and ICE agents at airports highlight the widespread problems plaguing airline travel today. Plus, when is it too late for mail-in ballots to be counted? The Supreme Court takes up a case likely to impact the midterm elections. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. I'm the Navaz is away. On the news hour tonight, President Trump teases a potential way to end the war with Iran, but Iran pushes back. We report from on the ground in the third nation key to any peace deal is real. A fatal plane collision at LaGuardia and ICE agents try to assist understaffed TSA. The widespread problems plaguing airline travel today. This idea of using ICE agents at the TSA checkpoints is something that has never happened in the history of the agency. And when is it too late for mail-in ballots to be counted? The U.S. Supreme Court takes up a case likely to affect the midterm elections. Welcome to the News Hour. We are following two major ongoing stories tonight. The troubles facing air travel continue to be compounded first by the congressional funding fight and now by a fatal collision at a New York City airport.

But we start with the latest in the war with Iran. President Trump today hinted the conflict could be over soon, something met with immediate pushback from Iran. That's as the U.S. and Israel continue their strikes and Iran retaliates. Our Nick Schifrin reports tonight from Israel. Today, following Israeli strikes on Tehran and U.S. threats to target Iran's energy facilities, President Trump signaled an off-rent. We have major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. President Trump said that top envoy Steve Whitkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had spoken to an official that he hoped would prove a possible

Iranian Delci Rodriguez, the Venezuelan leader largely following U.S. direction. We are doing so well in Venezuela with oil and with the relationship between the president-elect and us. And maybe we find somebody like that. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out. But Tehran denied any diplomacy. Powerful Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Bagar Baligoff, posted on X, Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors, and no negotiations have been held with the U.S., and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped.

The president's signaling rallied the market and drove down the price of Brent crude by nearly 20 percent. No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis. Before the president's announcement, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fata Birol laid out the toll paid by the energy market, 40 oil institutions severely damaged across nine countries, including long-term physical damage predicted to reduce natural gas exports for years. The global economy is facing a major, major threat.

I thought I should say a few things because I thought the depth of the problem was not well appreciated by the decision makers around the world. Today, the U.S. military continued its campaign targeting Iranian drones and missiles. And the military accused Iran of hiding launchers among civilians, leading the military's top Middle East commander to urge civilians to stay home for now. There will be a clear signal at some point, as the president is indicated, for you to be able to come out. In his first interview of the war, Admiral Brad Cooper also told the anti-regime channel Iran International that Israel is helping defend Arab countries from Iranian attacks.

We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in what has been established is the largest umbrella of air defense in the Middle East history. Israel is attacking drones and ballistic missiles that are aimed at Arab countries, in attacking and defeating them. But Israel itself has faced more than 400 missile attacks, including ones this weekend, it could not prevent. On Saturday night, an Iranian ballistic missile struck the city of Damona, home to Israel's nuclear facility, as well as an apartment building in the nearby city of Arad, with both strikes injuring more than 100.

By day, the missile's blast radius revealed entire family's daily lives crushed, in what used to be a home, and this community still in shock. Israel says it has blocked more than 90 percent of Iran's ballistic missiles, and that Iran has fired fewer weapons in the last three weeks than it did during 12 days of war last summer. But the residents of this part of Israel did not think they would be targeted. The people who lived here believed that they were safe, and so this damage here with a high number of casualties pierces Israeli sense of their own security.

Olga Naomov is a Russian immigrant who's lived here for 26 years. It's a bomb, a really loud boom sound, and we were all scared. Some people started crying, some people started yelling. It was really loud. Everything fell from the ceiling. Does this make you feel less safe? Does this make you think that anywhere in Israel isn't safe right now? There isn't a single place in this country that we can say is okay and safe.

There's nowhere to run. People have to think first and keep themselves safe. This city has long been home to Russian emigrates. Now it's also filled with the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom have historically ignored bomb shelters believing God would protect them. We want to learn, we want to be perfect, but no aerial defense system in the world is perfect. Colonel Nadav Shoshanee is the military's international spokesperson. He acknowledged the military's failure to shoot down this missile, but blamed Iran.

In the direct proximity of this area, there's no military installations. And throughout this war, we've seen Iran both in intelligence and in actions. We've seen them strike civilian areas. Including this street in downtown Tel Aviv, where Iran used an increasingly common weapon. The majority of missiles that Iran is now firing to Israel have cluster munitions. That's when a missile actually releases tiny bombs that fly across five to ten miles and are designed to penetrate through a roof before exploding. And that's what happened here.

A bomb exploded inside that apartment. no one was home, no casualties here, but it shows the ongoing risk to Israeli civilians. Last week, a cluster ammunition pierced this roof south of Tel Aviv to explode inside. It was a school whose students, like all students here, are studying from home. And so Tel Aviv and Israel are shaken today, even as they also clean up and try to remain resilient. And Nick joins us now from Tel Aviv. Nick, how is Israel reacting to President Trump's statement today that the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal? They were surprised, according to an Israeli official and a regional official I spoke to.

They were surprised by this announcement, taken back a little bit, by the fact that suddenly President Trump was moving so rapidly toward diplomacy. And you can see a little bit of that in the tone of a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which reads in part Trump believes there's an opportunity to leverage the tremendous achievements we have reached alongside the. the U.S. military to realize the goals of the war through an agreement, an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests. But it goes on to say, just a few days ago, we eliminated two more nuclear scientists, and we are still active. And that reflects a little bit, Jeff, when I'm hearing

from Israeli officials, but on the one hand, they've been trying to prepare this country to be at war through the Passover holiday. That means through the next two weeks, a holiday that usually the Israelis spend traveling with other family. Possibly, they won't be able to do that. That was the preparation. But at the same time, the Army was preparing not to be able to continue this operation. They were trying to speed up their targeting, knowing that President Trump could declare some kind of victory quickly.

So that's been happening in Israel, but definitely this announcement catching Israel by surprise. And what more have you learned about these negotiations, Nick? Three diplomatic officials tonight tell my colleague Liz Landers and I that Pakistan, has emerged as the possible intermediary, in fact, sees itself as responsible to be that intermediary between its relationship with the president and with Iran. But as one diplomatic official puts it to me, the U.S. does not need, or at least the Trump administration, does not feel it needs any kind of intermediary. This would be a venue, presumably, that Pakistan or another country would offer to the United

States. And so Pakistan playing a part, other diplomats telling us. that Egypt and Turkey are trying to play a part. And again, the president, as you heard earlier today, trying to find the equivalent of Adelsi Rodriguez, trying to find a leader inside Iran already who he can make a deal with, Jeff. Nick Schifrin, reporting tonight from Tel Aviv.

Nick, our thanks to you. Thank you. Shifting now to the day's other major story, federal investigators are trying to figure out what led to a collision between a commercial airliner and a fire truck on the runway at a New York airport last night. two pilots of the plane are dead and dozens more are injured. Officials say LaGuardia Airport will operate at a reduced capacity for some time. As Stephanie Sye reports, it comes at a moment

when the nation's air system is under considerable stress. A jet barrels down a rainy runway and crashes into a crossing truck. The late night collision wrecked the cockpit and jolted passengers. We were honestly sleeping and landing in and all of a sudden, boom, woke up in and shot. just didn't know what to do. Minutes before midnight, a plane carrying 72 passengers and four crew members collided with a fire truck on the tarmac of one of New York's busiest airports. The pilot and co-pilot were killed. And dozens of passengers, as well as Port Authority officers in the fire truck, suffered injuries.

One of our friends was several rows back from us and like we walked past him on the way out because he was trying to find his glasses and his nose was totally broken, bleeding on his face. A lot of people smack their head against the seat in front of them. The impact was enough to crush the Air Canada Jets nose, tilting the plane on its tail. The fire truck was mangled beyond recognition. Minutes before the collision, an air traffic controller had cleared the truck to cross the runway. An audio recording reveals the moment a controller tries to prevent the crash. He's then heard frantically redirecting other.

flight's about to land to different runways and then later this conversation is picked up. I tried to reach out my stop and we were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up. He says I messed up. Whether he did or not, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are now on site at LaGuardia to get to the bottom of what happened. The airport was closed for most of the day. We will follow their lead on what their investigation requires and they will have the

time they need to make that determination. The latest runway incursion is raising alarm among aviation analysts. The air traffic control system is kind of a shadow of what it should be. Miles O'Brien is NewsHours aviation correspondent. It's way understaffed and as a result the controllers are working mandatory overtime as a matter of routine. There's a lot of stress and fatigue that is built into this system. And frankly, a lot of heroic effort. on the part of the air traffic controllers to make the system safe. But we shouldn't be relying on heroic efforts to make a system safe. He also says Lagwardia's runways are designed to prevent this kind of crash.

So there are 20 airports, give or take, in the U.S. that have this technology called runway status lights. It basically detects the movement of an aircraft takeoff or landing when the runway should be cleared except for that aircraft. And when it detects the presence of the aircraft, if it's working properly, it should have a red light on the taxiway leading to the front runway. This system is designed to prevent exactly what we just saw. And if it failed, it's something that needs to be considered along with the overall problems with air traffic control. The latest deadly incident occurs amid turmoil at many of the nation's airports. A partial government shutdown due to political disputes over immigration enforcement tactics has led to gridlock for travelers. The shortage of TSA workers combined with heavy spring break traffic has meant long lines at airports. Travelers leaving Atlanta today were advised to arrive four hours early to make their flights.

Oh my God, this is insane. I mean, I've never experienced anything like this. It's crazy. It's insane. I mean, I've never seen an airport like this. In a controversial step, President Trump has directed DHS to deploy federal immigration and customs enforcement agents at TSA checkpoints. The ICE officers are fanning out across more than a dozen airports today. I want to thank ICE because they said this so strongly. They'll do great. And if that's not enough, I'll bring in the National Guard. Meanwhile, the political stalemate continues. And I told the people don't settle. Don't settle.

because we have something bigger. The lack of a political settlement means air travel may also remain unsettled for millions of travelers. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Sye. For more now on the deployment of ice agents to airports, I'm joined by John Sandweg, who served as acting ice director under President Obama. John, thank you so much for joining the News Hour. So hundreds of ice agents were deployed to more than a dozen airports today, including New York, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta. What are you seeing and hearing about how this is going so far? Well, I think thus far is basically what I expected when I heard about this plan, which is

the real limitations on what those ICE agents can do. The jobs of these TSA agents are actually very highly skilled, require skill and training, right? Things that although ICE agents have tremendous law enforcement experience are not, they can't step in and run the X-ray or conduct one those path down searches or even do the baggage inspection that happens behind the scenes. So I think this, what we've seen as far as these agents are providing more of a visible presence, perhaps helping them a little bit with perimeter security. But the bottom line is that that's just not going to be the types of activities that are going to free up TSA agents and help shrink those lines that we're seeing in some of these airports.

I understand that the ICE agents don't even have the same security clearance that TSA agents might have. And 12% of those TSA officers called out yesterday, 3,200 employees that didn't show up for work. The problem, as you know, is these long lines leading to air travel disruptions. How much will having ICE agents deployed help address that problem? Well, what ideally, I think, you know, for this to work, right, for this to actually, you know, let ICE replace those missing TSA agents. You need ICE agents to build a due tasks that would otherwise be required by TSA. agents. Now, as Tom Homan said, when he kind of explained this yesterday, that you could have

ICE agents manning those security checkpoints at the exits, right? As you leave the security or the airport, you'll often see a TSA agent or two sitting at a podium there, making sure someone doesn't enter through the exit line. Basic tasks like that ICE could do. The problem is, though, that's about it. And the majority of those TSA agents are doing things like operating the metal detectors and other screening devices when people enter, operating those X-ray devices. Those are simply tasks that ICE agents can't do without extensive training. And so I think that's the, from an operational perspective, it's really hard to see a lot of value in this, right? For this to work, you want ICE agents to be able to come in, do some of these basic jobs,

free up a lot of those TSA agents so they can help screen the passengers, move things along. But again, without that specific training, it's just not something that ICE or any law enforcement agency can do. So ultimately, in terms of reducing the size of those lines, this is really not going to be operationally all that impactful. When have immigration agents ever been used in this way? Well, they're not. They've never been used this way. They're, you know, with one exception, if you are down at smaller airports right next to the U.S.-Mexico border or sometimes in places like Puerto Rico, you will sometimes see a border patrol presence there outside the TSA checkpoint. And what they're there is providing another layer of security trying to protect people who've crossed that border unlawfully.

It might now be trying to board a flight into the interior of the United States. Outside of that area, we've certainly never seen ICE deployed in the air environment and certainly never near the TSA checkpoints. Ice does play a role in terms of having us as a presence traditionally at the airport, but those are Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents, so criminal special agents who are there primarily responding to situations inside the Customs of Border Protection, that port of entry, right, where international travelers are arriving, or potentially making apprehensions of individuals who are smuggling goods or caught smuggling items out of the United States or international fugitives trying to board a flight to depart the United States, situations like that. But this idea of using ICE agents at the TSA checkpoints is something that has never happened in the history of the agency.

To that point, John, President Trump posted that these ICE agents will, quote, to do security, including the immediate arrest of illegal immigrants. What do you expect we might see unfold at airports now? And can you see these ice deployments potentially leading to more chaos? Stephanie, I think that is the big question, is will they be doing immigration enforcement? I certainly think if we start seeing immigration enforcement operations in conjunction with these TSA checkpoints, you will see a lot of chaos. You're going to see a lot of people who are legally present and probably some U.S. citizens who are going to be detained and kind of forced into questioning because for one reason or another, some suspicion was generally. with the ID they presented at TSA. I would say this, that I'm sure there are some of the administration who've always looked

at these TSA checkpoints as a potential source of making a lot of immigration arrests. You have individuals in a secure environment, so it's a safer environment to make arrests. But more importantly, it's one of the few places in the United States where people have to present an identification, almost like an ID checkpoint. And you could see a scenario where TSA agents are just looking for anyone who presents a foreign passport or a driver's license. it's not real ID compliant. Something that doesn't clearly show they are entitled to be in the United States,

referring them for further questioning of vice officers. I think if we saw that, though, we're going to see real chaos at that point. You are going to see people who have a legal right to be in this country. They're going to be pulled aside and questions. You're going to have a lot of fear. Probably a lot of people deciding they'd rather not run the risk of facing those questions and not flying. So it'll be very interesting.

I know the president said that immigration enforcement would be part of this mission, thus far it doesn't appear that we have seen that, but I think that that'll, you know, that'll tell us whether or not this will be in many ways operationally, you know, unimpactful where people just won't impact their, you know, their travel rather and their TSA experience or whether or not this becomes a much bigger and potentially chaotic ordeal. That is John Sandwig, the former acting ICE director under the Obama administration joining us. John, thank you. Thank you.

A note that the News Hour requested interview. today with White House border czar Tom Homan, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, an acting ICE director Todd Lyons. The invitation still stands. The new deployment of ICE agents to airports comes as the partial DHS shutdown nears the 40-day mark. The president nixed one potential solution over the weekend that would have funded some agencies, including TSA. Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin is here with more on the negotiations to fully reopen the government. So Lisa, we'll start there. What's the latest? All right, if you remember nothing else from this report, and I know our viewers remember everything.

You certainly do. Remember these three things. Number one, the president just made this more complicated. Number two, the chances of ending this DHS shutdown this week have now become slimmer. Really? But number three, everything can change quickly. Okay. So say more about that.

Right. Okay, so let's talk about these dynamics that made it more complicated. First of all, I'm going to recap what has become a very chaotic weather system. Let me look at this a little bit more clearly here. President Trump last night posted on truth social in his account. He wrote that I don't think we should make any deals with Democrats. He wants that election ID law, the Save America Act, to pass first. That's what he's prioritizing here.

He said Republicans should stay in Washington. All of Congress should through the Easter recess. Now, with that, what he's doing is he's making things more complicated, not for Democrats, but for Republicans who don't have the votes for the Save Act. Now, yesterday, sources familiar told me that Senate Republicans raised the idea of funding all of DHS except for ICE. White House staffers briefed the president, and he personally rejected that idea in a phone call with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Meanwhile, what about Democrats? Well, last week, moderate Democrats were talking with Tom Holman from DHS about trying to find a deal.

But instead, now they are more united in trying to get more from the administration. And those talks from Democrats are in limbo. So President Trump said today, trying to blame Democrats for where we are, that Democrats insisted that they want a deal. But Democrats say there was no such phone call at all, and they don't know what the president's talking about. So how are the TSA lines, the airport safety issues that we reported on earlier? How is that affecting these talks?

Right. I have to say from talking to sources in both parties, that in a counterintuitive way, I think that these lines are actually making it more difficult to reach a solution right now. Let me explain why. Democratic sources see the polling, including from Quinnipiac, that shows more Americans blame Republicans for what's happening at our airports than blame Democrats. Usually, the party that starts the shutdown,

in this case, Democrats sparked it, gets the blame. But Democrats are saying, hey, we'll fund TSA, and they're blaming Republicans for this. Meanwhile, President Trump is seeing the solution as sending ICE agents to airports, not in compromising with Democrats. So that also is making it harder to reach that kind of compromise. So what should we watch for now?

There's a lot to watch for. First of all, the question is, does Congress stay in town this weekend or not? They are leaving supposedly for a two-week recess. You and I both know nothing motivates Congress more than a kind of Easter recess. But in this chaotic weather system, really has become just kind of like a fragment blowing around in the wind. We'll see what happens in the next few days. The other pressure points will be TSA workers, hundreds of thousands of rules. workers will miss perhaps a month of paycheck by the end of this week. So we'll see if there's

more stories about that. Now also, Trump, how much is he pushing for the SAVE Act? How much does he keep that up? In all, remember those three points I said? Number one, they're still true. This has become more complicated. It has become more uphill ending the shutdown. But it's day by day. It could change quickly. Lisa Desjardin, tracking it all. I don't know how you do it. Thank you. You're welcome. Senate is set to vote tonight on Mark Wayne Mullen's confirmation to be Homeland Security Secretary. The numbers are in his favor of putting him on track to replace Christy Noem, who was fired amid public backlash over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations.

Senators advanced Mullen's nomination over the weekend with support from two Democrats. The Republican senator from Oklahoma has long backed President Trump's immigration agenda, but at his confirmation hearing last week, he vowed to keep the department off the front page of the news. Law enforcement officials in London are investigating an apparent arson attack as an anti-Semitic hate crime. Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer organization were set on fire overnight. Multiple oxygen cylinders on the ambulances exploded, shattering nearby apartment windows and leaving behind only the vehicle's charred remains. The North London neighborhood, where the incident occurred, has a large Jewish population. No one was injured.

Police say they are looking for three suspects but have not made any arrest. yet. Prime Minister Kier Starmar told reporters such an attack has no place in their society. Well, this is a horrific anti-Semitic attack. And of course, my thoughts, I think all of our thoughts will be with those in the vicinity, the residents who are understandably very concerned, a Jewish community across the country deeply concerned. Advocacy groups say nearly 4,000 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the UK last year. That's more than double the amount back in 2022 before Hamas's attack on Israel. In Cuba, officials say power is slowly being restored after the country's electric grid

collapsed again this past weekend. It's the island's third blackout this month amid an ongoing U.S. oil blockade. In Havana, it's now routine for people to try to take advantage of the daylight, but by nightfall, with much of the city pitch black, many residents say they're just trying to survive. Now with these blockouts, the little food people, people have spoils, and you don't know what to do anymore. You don't know if you can buy food for a month or for a week or for a day, because you never know when the electricity will go out. One minute, everything is lit up, and the next minute, everything goes down.

Cuba only produces 40% of the fuel it needs to power its economy. The country's president says the island hasn't gotten oil from much-needed foreign suppliers for three months. A statue of Christopher Columbus was quietly installed this weekend on the White House grounds, the replica statue of the Explorer, now standing. outside the Eisenhower executive office building adjacent to the White House itself. The original was toppled and tossed into Baltimore's inner harbor during the 2020 racial justice protests following the death of George Floyd. Other statues of Columbus were taken down

at the height of those protests for his role in colonization. The White House has called Columbus a hero. Washington Capitol's legend Alex Ovechkin scored his 1,000th career NHL goal in a loss yesterday to the Colorado Avalanche. His teammates swarmed him as he reached the milestone in the game's third period. Ovechkin joins Wayne Gretzky as the only players to reach a thousand goals when combining the regular season and the playoffs. Gretzky finished his NHL career with 1,016. Ovechkin is not far behind. The great eight already broke Gretzky's previous regular season record of 894 goals last year. And Stocks rally today on the news that President Trump would defer strikes on Iran to allow for negotiations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dumped 631 points or more

than a percent. The NASDAQ made the exact same gain of 1.38 percent, and the S&P 500 also ended more than a percent higher. Still to come on the news hour, the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on mail-in ballots. Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines. And what I learned while writing my new book on the revolutionary history of black comedy. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that could reshape how millions of mail-in ballots are counted in this fall's elections. Our justice correspondent, Ali Rogan, has more on the ensuing legal battle. Jeff, currently 14 states and the District of Columbia allow elections officials to count mail-in ballots that arrive after election day, as long as they are post-average.

marked by Election Day. But the Republican National Committee is challenging that procedure, arguing it undermines trust in elections. In today's arguments, the justices appeared to be divided along ideological lines. Labor Day, Memorial Day, George Washington's birthday, Independence Day, birthday, and election day. And they're all particular days. So if we start with that, If I have nothing more to look at than the phrase election day, I think this is the day in which everything is going to take place. This idea of the votes being cast by election day and counted after election day has been around, right? I mean, it's not like we're talking about a brand new thing from Mississippi from the standpoint of no one ever had a post-election day ballot deadline before. If the court sides with the RNC, it could significantly change voting rules just months ahead of this year's midterms.

For more on the fight over voting by mail, I'm joined now by Nate Persily, an election law scholar at Stanford University. Nate, thank you so much for being here. What is the core argument here? Why are Republicans fighting against this law? Well, what the Republicans are saying is that there is a federal law that sets the date for the election as a particular day. And so they are suggesting that any ballots that are received after that day should not be counted because the federal law trumps the state law in this case Mississippi's law. And how did this become such a partisan idea? Is there a partisan preference for mail and voting in one party over the other? In the last decade, we've seen a partisan polarization on the issue of mail balloting.

In no small part because Donald Trump has made it a central part of sort of his election reform agenda and claims of massive fraud that he suggests that mail voting is inherently insecure. And so you have seen Republicans in general being more restrictive on issues of mail voting and Democrats being more liberal. I should say that's not uniformly true. Places like Utah, which is a heavily Republican state, have all mail voting. And so both Republicans and Democrats take advantage of that as a way of casting their ballots. If the court rules against this state law, what happens in terms of elections? come the fall. Does anything change immediately? Well, we'll see how they phrase the opinion. One would expect that this decision would come down around June. That would definitely throw a wrench in

the gears for a lot of the election planning at the states. But what it would mean is that states would not be able to count ballots if they're received after election day. And so they would have to change some of their state laws. And you may actually have a situation where in some states, they will count ballots for state offices like governor after election day, but they won't be able to count congressional races after election day. Right. That was a big part of the argument, too, whether it's a state election or a federal election. We heard a lot today about what defines election day, and that conversation included a lot of talk about things like early voting. So is there a chance that this court ruling could extend beyond mail and ballots

and have farther-reaching implications for how we run elections? Well, one of the problems with the Republicans' arguments here is that if you really believe that the casting and counting of ballots has to happen on one day, then that would seem to not only affect the receipt of ballots after that day, but also the casting of ballots beforehand. However, they said, no, they wouldn't take that argument that far. And so everybody in the case agreed that early voting,

which is to say casting of ballots and giving them into the election officials, before election day would still be allowed. But whether the sort of liberals on the court were trying to say is that, look, if you really believe election day means election day, that should apply to the counting of ballots and the casting of ballots before election day as well. How does this case play into the Supreme Court's broader efforts

to reshape election law? And to what extent is the Supreme Court here taking over making policy where Congress also has a role to play? Well, that's a very good point to make, which is that this is a statutory case. The only question in this case is whether the federal law passed by Congress is inconsistent with the state law passed by Mississippi that would allow for ballots to be received and counted after Election Day.

And so everyone agrees that Congress could have clarified this to make clear that you couldn't have ballots received after Election Day. The question is whether a vague law that just declares the Election Day as being a particular Tuesday in November, whether that says something about the ability. to count ballots after the fact. And of course, at the same time, Congress is talking about the SAVE Act, which is a big priority for President Trump and would significantly affect the way that Americans can vote. What is the context here in terms of one of these battles playing out in the Supreme Court

and the other making its way through Congress? Well, so the SAVE Act does have provisions related to mail balloting, but it goes much farther. It deals with things like voter ID in the polling place, as well as citizenship or requirements for registering. And so one of the questions here is whether Congress would be able to essentially go farther than even those in this case are suggesting to have a sort of greater federal law that would supplant a lot of these state laws with respect to voter access and the casting and counting of ballots. Nate Persilly with Stanford University. Thank you so much for breaking this down for us.

Thanks for having me. Air travelers met with long lines. And for travelers looking to drive instead, their facing rising gas prices as the war with Iran continues. Lots to discuss with our Politics Monday duo. That's Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. Another Monday, another opportunity for me to get to welcome you to the program. Good to see you both. So we are almost about to hit day 40 of this DHS funding shutdown. Today we're seeing something new, ICE agents assisting with the TSA staffer shortfall. Amy, is this a practical solution to a real problem or does it just raise more concerns than it solves?

Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's going to solve the real problem, which is getting people through lines. What they need are people who can actually do the machines and do the scanning and all of that. That is not what ICE is there to be able to do. It makes it seem as if they're trying to find a solution, but it's not going to solve the problem. The real challenge, and I think Lisa laid it out very well, is the fact that there was actually, at one point, it seemed we were this close to a solution to this, that Republicans came to the table saying, we will split off this battle over ICE from DHS funding.

And Republicans can agree, Democrats agree, boom, bang, boom, we're done. In comes the president saying, not without the Voting Act. And so now what it is done is essentially put the issue of the shutdown promptly in the president, It is now his shutdown. He says it's unless they pass a bill that I would like to see, that everybody agrees is not going to be able to pass. This shutdown continues. Tim, why is the president making the Save Act a red line now?

Well, that is a, that is, this goes back a very long time. He has raised concerns falsely about people who are not in the country legally, people who are not citizens, voting in elections, going back at least to the 2016 election. This is a longstanding issue that he cares about a lot. He has now said that he thinks that this is something, the Save Act, Save America Act, as he has rebranded it, is something that Republicans could run on in the midterms. But the problem is, it's a boxed canyon. He is taking a stand, making a really big deal, now saying, I'll even own the shutdown, more or less, all for a piece of legislation that simply does not have enough Republican support to make it out of the Senate. And there are reasons for that.

The legislation would require people in order to register to vote to show proof of citizenship. Well, in rural states, that would mean, one, finding the documents, and two, actually traveling in Alaska, people might have to get on a plane in order to. prove that they are a citizen to be able to register to vote. And he also wants to take away most absentee voting. Well, Republicans like absentee voting. And, you know, like there are certainly ways that it could be tightened up and things like that. But he is essentially taking a stand on a thing saying, stay in through Easter, do this for Jesus when, literally, he said that. I was going to ask you, okay. Yeah, yeah, he said that. He said that. He said that. He He is doing this on an issue where he's actually making it really tough for members of his own party who don't support it.

Let's talk about the war with Iran. It's unpopular. The public does not support it. That's according to a number of polls. Americans are now feeling it at the pump with gas prices rising. How much political pressure, Amy, does this create for Republicans, especially in this election year? Yes. They are already facing the traditional headwinds of being the in-party and then facing a public that feels very frustrated with inflation. and now on top of this an unpopular war and high gas prices.

Not that good. The issue, though, really at the end of the day, comes down to, it seems to me, on how unpopular this is and how long this becomes a political issue for Republicans is about how long we stay in Iran. I thought one of the most interesting questions that CBS released a poll this weekend,

they asked, you know, what do you think the priority should be for, success. No more nuclear weapons for Iran. They don't harass their neighbors. Those were popular, but the most popular by far with 92 percent is that this ends quickly. That's what Americans want above all else. The longer it drags out, the harder it will be for Republicans to put this in the rear mirror because it is true. If by November, we may not be remembering TSA lines and gas prices, but the longer the war drags on, the more unpopular.

it is going to become, even with people who may support it right now. In one way we know the president believes this to be a political liability is that he was in Memphis today trying to shift the focus to issues like crime, Tam. Yeah, and I have spent a lot of time talking to swing voters in the last several weeks, and no one brought up crime. They talked a lot about the economy, about the cost of living, and then more recently about gas prices. But certainly President Trump has promised that he's going to go out on the road and he's going to campaign. And something like crime should be a winning issue for the president. The problem is there just are other higher priorities that voters are having right now. And yes, so he's trying to reclaim the issue of crime, the issue of immigration by getting rid of his Homeland Security Secretary and bringing in a new one.

the, he's really trying to get a reset and take back control of these issues that have helped propel him and Republicans in the past. That's right. We should also, before we wrap up this conversation, talk about what happened over the weekend. We reported the White House installed this statue of Christopher Columbus. It was a replica. You see it there. It's a replica of the one that was torn down in 2020.

And he also approved a commemorative coin that bears his own image, President Trump's image. I'm not sure if we have a picture of that. But, Amy, what's the strategy is not the right word? There might not be a strategy. But what does this symbolism? What does this iconography? What does it suggest? This is a president who has long loved seeing his name on things, buildings, etc.

So that's not particularly new. But it's also a president who believes very strongly in putting his stamp on Washington, not just figuratively, but literally. This will stand the test of time. It's also going back to Tam's point, especially with the Christopher Columbus statue. It's going back to the things that have traditionally worked for the president, especially when it's about keeping his base engaged and excited,

are things that evoke what that Christopher Columbus statue evokes, which is we're in a battle for the identity of the U.S. The left is supporting this woke ideology. We're supporting sort of where real Americans are. So it is his comfortable place, and that is also the place when he's talking about those things, his base does get united, even as they're getting divided, at least in Congress, on this issue of the shutdown.

How do you read it, Tam? Is it symbolism is politics or distraction from bigger challenges? Or both? It is a strong focus of the president. Whether it's a distraction for others or not, he's very focused on it. And this is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. President Trump has a very specific view of what should be part of American history.

He is attempting to airbrush American history to sort of remove any hints that maybe America wasn't always perfect. And this statement from Davis Ingola White House spokesman, just part of it here, I think, gets at this. President Trump has rightly hailed Christopher Columbus as the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization. This is very in line with the way President Trump views America. He's also working on this garden of American heroes, which are statues that were removed from town squares because of complicated history. Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you both. We're welcome. In the 1990s,

a remarkable wave of black sitcoms and sketch comedy reshaped American television. Shows like In Living Color and Living Single reflected a wide range of black lives. and helped broaden how millions of Americans understood black experiences. That moment and the long history that helped make it possible are at the core of my new book, Black Out Loud. I recently spoke with Amna Nawaz about it. Congratulations on the book. Thank you.

I'm so happy to talk to you about this. So this is a book that looks at the long history of black comedy in America. You focus on the 1990s in particular, though, right? Why? It was this question that I kept coming back to. What was it about the night? 90s that allowed all of these shows to exist on the air at the same time and thrive. These shows were at the top of the ratings.

They had broad appeal, but they were at the same time unapologetically specific and authentic. And as a journalist who covers American life and culture, as we do, I realize that the story of these shows, what they meant, what they gave us, the overall cultural imprint, had never really been told. So I wrote the book I wanted to read, and in the process spoke to the performance. and the producers who really built that era, not just about what existed on screen, but what it all really meant. So here's a glimpse of some of the conversations that informed the book.

Ladies and gentlemen, Keenan... On a Sunday night, in April of 1990, something quietly radical happened on American television. In Living Color, Fox aired the first episode of In Living Color. Jovee, Jovey, Jovey! A sketch comedy show created, written, and controlled by black artists. Only don't play that. It was a cultural shockwave that helped ignite a boom of black comedy on TV.

Maxin the House. When millions of Americans saw versions of themselves on screen that felt specific and true. Erica Alexander played Maxine Shaw on the Fox sitcom Living Single about young black professionals navigating work, friendship, and dating in Brooklyn. The 90s were the golden age of black sitcoms. What did it feel like to exist inside that eco-exam? system. It was amazing. It was amazing to be in that era. It felt like anything could be done and that we, in large measure, could start to achieve some of the things that in the 60s, people said would happen. But to understand how that door opened, you have to go back, all the way back, because for decades, black comedy existed inside narrow limits, propping up America's first form of mass entertainment, minstrelsy.

Comedians like Bert Williams became stars even while navigating an industry that demanded black performers played degrading caricatures. Mom, say it away. Decades later, Moms Mabley mixed sharp social commentary with disarming warmth. In the 1960s, Dick Regory carried stand up directly into the civil rights movement. Have you ever stopped to think that if all the Negroes left to south, buses would ride like this? By Flip Wilson Show.

By the early 1970s, Flip Wilson broke new ground as the first black comedian to host a major network variety show. You destroyed my whole image. The damnedest thing I've ever heard of in my life. Richard Pryor, whose approach was raw, fearless and deeply personal, reshaped what comedy could do. All the people you ever heard of Free Basin. Have you ever heard of anybody blowing up?

Why me? Comedian Sinbad says Pryor changed everything. was so real. The first album I bought a comedy album. I was playing it. My father's a preacher was in the hallway. And mother, my mother, who's a mother of the church, they were both cracking up. They said, who's that?

I said Richard Pryor. So he caught everybody. By the 1990s, the TV industry was shifting. Networks and advertisers began recognizing the buying power of a growing black middle class. For the first time, black audiences weren't just being counted. They were being courted and sitcoms became the perfect vehicle. I know my parents love me. A different world proved comedy could tackle serious ideas.

You can't trust anybody in a uniform. Gender, class, racism without losing its audience. Since comedy has a way of lowering defenses while making a point, says Sinbad. We're the ones you can bring in and talk about what's happening in the world and we can bring it in a way that's funny and somebody in the audience, somebody that even agree with the viewpoint. If you do it right, you can get somebody go like, hey, okay, I'll see that side of it. Living single captured the lives of young black professionals years before mainstream TV caught up. So good to see a woman on the job.

It's good to be one. Erica Alexander says the influence of her character, a high-powered attorney, still surprises her. These amazing people started coming up to me saying they went into law, they went to executive positions, they went into education, leadership positions because they were very inspired by Maxine Shaw. attorney at law. I knew that representation mattered, but there was proved positive. They had actually done the things that Maxine Shaw was purporting to have done. The fresh prince of Bel Air presented a black family whose lives were shaped by affluence and aspiration. How's your job going? Karen Parsons played Hillary Banks, a character who could have

become a one-note punchline, but became something far more enduring. You know he likes you. Oh, and I'm supposed to be nice to everyone who likes me? How much time do you think I have? I hear people a lot say, you know, thought about her being ditsy, and the younger generations didn't see her that way. They look at her as a role model because she went out there and she went after what she wanted. She had no problem saying, this is who I am, and I'm beautiful, and I'm going to do this. And no holding back, no trying to make nice for people or try to make people comfortable. Did you feel the weight of representing a version of Black Life, which at the time really, contradicted so many dominant narratives?

No. I think at the time, you know, for one thing, it was hard to comprehend that so many people were actually watching and that so many people would watch. Cosby Show was happening at the time and they were the, they were kind of like the epitome of black family and family period because it was the number one show, period. So we were kind of this, to me, it was kind of like this, this very odd cast to characters, you know, strange stuff. Kind of all very different. All of these things that were actually very important, I would find later, I think, for a representation.

There were such different black characters, people. Different voices, different visions of black life, airing the same week, sometimes even the same night. And that mattered because audiences were finally seeing a range of stories instead of just one. I think up until that point, everybody was thinking about the weight of what it would mean. and how we told those stories. But there was a specific freedom in maybe saying, well, we don't have to because there's all sorts of different people telling the stories.

There was just a feeling that the sky was the limit and that we were suddenly being supported. You know, that's different when you're being funded and supported. Support it, and for millions of viewers that expanded what seemed possible. That is so incredible to hear from these folks. A sneak peek into your book, but big,

picture at this moment, Jeff, why does all this matter? Like beyond being nostalgic about some of these characters and shows? I think it matters because cultural memory is fragile and it requires tending. For black viewers, these shows were important because there was a...