PBS News Hour - Full Show - March 27, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Friday on the News Hour, House Republicans reject a Senate deal to end the partial shutdown, even as airport lines grow longer. Israel targets Iran's nuclear facilities while Iran tries to assert more control over the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, an Army veteran faces conspiracy charges after participating in an anti-ICE protest. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm John Yang. Jeff Bennett and Anna Nawaz are away. On the news hour tonight, House Republicans reject a Senate deal to end the partial shutdown, even as airport lines grow longer. Israel targets Iran's nuclear facilities while Iran tries to assert more control over the Strait of Hormuz. And an army veteran faces conspiracy charges after participating in an anti-ice protest. These are the things that when I joined the military, I thought I was joining to protect. You have a right as an American to voice your opinion. Welcome to the News Hour. It has been a dizzying and dramatic 24 hours in the halls of Congress. Early this morning, the Senate unanimously passed a plan to immediately end the shutdown for most of the Department of Homeland Security.

But within hours, House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected it because it didn't include money for ICE. and Border Patrol. Now, House Republicans are pursuing a different approach and risking a longer shutdown. Meanwhile, President Trump took executive action to pay one group, TSA workers at airports. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin is here to help us understand all this

if we can't understand it. TSA workers really, this has been focused on a lot. So what happens to them in this? Let's start with them. They haven't been paid yet, but as you said, President Trump signed that executive order today. He would use money that was passed last year for borrow it from the one big, beautiful bill act. The TSA tells us that they expect those workers to be paid by Monday.

Now, of course, all this speaks to those long lines that Americans have been seen at some airports. We do know there's a permanent effect. Some 500 TSA workers have quit the job altogether so far. One of our senior producers spoke to TSA Union operative, an officer named Johnny Jones. He said that they are appreciative, but no one's can. counting on this money until it actually appears in their bank accounts. In addition, Jones told our producer, Murray Jacobson, that they were stunned to realize that President Trump could have done this.

This is the same kind of money he's used to already pay military members of the Coast Guard. And one more thing, Jones said, they are all tired of being used as what they feel as pawns. You know, we started the day thinking this had been settled, that there was a deal. What happened? Okay. Let me take you through this. 2.30 in the morning this morning, a rainbow suddenly appeared over the United States Senate as it happens. Behind the scenes work had led to this deal, and the Senate unanimously agreed on this

deal that would fund most of DHS, three quarters of it, everything but ice and border patrol. And at that time, the funding formula that they passed was exactly what Democrats wanted, but Democrats did not get any of the reforms that they wanted, which is something that Senate leader Thune stressed. The reason that we can't accept this review with a list of reforms if Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement. But they didn't. Because it's now clear to everyone, Democrats didn't actually want a solution. They wanted an issue. Well, that's what he said. The Senate passed that. The Senate leaves Washington altogether, convinced everything was fine. the House comes in and, surprisingly, to a lot of people, rejected the deal,

surprisingly to the House, to the senators themselves. In fact, for House Speaker Mike Johnson, it wasn't a rainbow. It was a mirage. He called it a joke. The reason that we can't accept this ridiculousness, okay, is because we're not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe. The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest department in the federal government. It has 10 agencies beneath it.

It's not just TSA, it's also FEMA, the Coast Guard, all these agencies that keep us safe. We must fund them. This is not a game. Now, what this is is more complicated. Now, they want a deal to fund DHS for 60 days. But, of course, now, then the Senate would have to approve that. And there they need Democratic votes. Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer already is defined.

He's saying, no, this is dead on arrival over there. So what we have right now is both chambers leaving for two weeks, break, and that's why we think this shutdown very likely will just continue. And where has President Trump been in all of this? Right. I talked to a senior White House official who told me this quote, that he is trying to, quote, let the Hill work this out. Now, the president did cast a little bit of shade on the Senate bill, but he basically seems to be staying out of it, saying he stands both sides. That's a problem. He's not leading here as we have Senate Republicans being more pragmatic,

looking for something that can pass, and House Republicans being more righteous, looking for what they think is right in all of this. That divides also a political risk for Republicans. They say Democrats started this shutdown, but really they're the ones right now who can't seem to get on the same page. So where are we now? And what's next? What can come next? Okay, let's see. Let's talk about this. First of all, DHS is the third largest agency in U.S. government.

So many workers, even with TSA being paid, are going to go again. again without pay. They've been with more than a month now without pay. So the White House and the Senate heading toward this two-week break means this is a shutdown of historic proportions. Even though it is just a limited one-to-one agency, here you see all the shutdowns since 1980. This is the last year's one there. You see the highest one, 43 days in yellow, the partial shutdowns. The current one, 40 days. Now, let's see what happens if we go this two-week recess without any deal, which is where we are right now, then we have the longest shutdown in American history, even though it's one agency, it's a very large one. So what's next? The House is on track to vote tonight on its plan. The

Senate has left town. Usually I like to give viewers a very clear sense of what is next, John, but to be honest, no one knows. And what we know for workers other than TSA and Coast Guard military, for DHS workers, many of them just don't know where their pay is going to come from or when. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the United States could achieve its goals in Iran without ground troops.

That, despite the deployment of thousands of Marines to the Persian Gulf, and reports that many more U.S. personnel could be on the way soon. A senior regional diplomatic source tells the news hour there's no agreement between the United States and Iran on direct talks or even a venue for them. The proposals from both sides have been

maximalist, which leaves the region, the world one month into this war and an apparent impasse. Ali Rogan reports. Today in Tehran, a scene of horror. Rescue workers dig through the rubble, looking for the living, and the dead. A lifeless body hanging from the destruction. As onlookers pray to end the suffering and comfort a community in grief. After Israel overnight launched a night. new wave of strikes across Iran, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society today condemned

the attacks. Claims that only military areas are targeted and not residential areas are completely false. They are lying. All the areas being hit now are residential. Around 20,39 commercial units where people work have been damaged and targeted. Two hundred ninety medical centers have been targeted. Israel's military said it targeted sites used for military purposes and had warned Iran to stop its missile attacks, with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz today promising

to escalate the bombing. Despite the warnings, the firing has continued and therefore IDF strikes in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons used against Israeli civilians. And today, Israel struck the Hondab heavy water research reactor in Iraq in central Iran, claiming, Iran was in the process of rebuilding the nuclear energy complex having first struck the site during the 12-day war last June. This comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after discussing the war in Iran with his G7 counterparts, said the American campaign was nearing its end.

We are on or ahead of schedule in that operation and expect to conclude it at the appropriate time here, in a matter of weeks, not months, and the progress is going very well. And that the United States was on standby to negotiate with Iraq. Is it your understanding that they'll convey their response to the 15-point plan today? And are you looking for anything in particular? We haven't gotten it yet. We haven't gotten it yet. Look, we've got messages.

We've had an exchange of messages and indications from the Iranian system, whatever's left of it, about a willingness to talk about certain things. We're waiting for further clarification about who will we allow, who was it that we would be talking to, what will we be talking about, and when will we be talking? I don't have any use for you on that yet. Rubio also spoke on the day-after scenario regarding Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz. It's dangerous to the world. And it's important that the world have a plan to confront it.

The United States is prepared to be a part of that plan. French foreign minister Jean-Noelle Barreau echoing Rubio that the straits closure was unacceptable to Europe. Today we are adopting a new statement on Iran at the level of foreign ministers. It reaffirms the absolute necessity of permanently restoring free and safe navigation. in the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as Iran today turned away three oil tankers in the strait, Iranian State TV reported. The IRGC Navy announced that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and any transit through the strait will face a firm response.

All shipping to and from ports of allies and supporters of the U.S. and Israel is prohibited. The United Nations today as well announced a new task force aimed at opening the strait. The primary focus of this task force is to develop and propose technical mechanisms specifically designed to meet humanitarian needs in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran later today accepted the UN's request for aid to be let through, with Iran's ambassador to the organization writing on X that, quote, The Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to facilitate and further expedite the safe passage of humanitarian shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

But even with aid let through, the war and the profound loss it inflicts continues. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Ali Rogan. In today's other headlines, a pro-Iranian and pro-Palestinian hacking group claims it breached an email account belonging to FBI director Cash Patel. The group said they accessed Patel's personal email and published what appeared to be photographs of him as well as work and travel documents.

Most of them are more than a decade old. Within hours, the FBI said it had taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks and that no government information was involved. It's not clear when the hack might have occurred. Lawyers representing Fulton County, Georgia asked a federal court today to order the FBI to return 2020 election ballots and other records seized in a late January raid. FBI agents serving a criminal warrant took more than 650. 50 boxes of 2020 documents from a warehouse near Atlanta.

Today, Justice Department lawyers said they were cooperative and had provided the county with digital copies of everything taken. Fulton County's lawyer, Abby Lowell, argued that the FBI is pursuing crimes for which the statute of limitations has expired. Fulton County has been at the center of President Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The bipartisan House Ethics Committee said today that Florida Democratic Representative Sheila,

Sherfulness McCormick violated more than two dozen House rules and federal campaign finance laws. As a result, there could be a vote in the House to expel her from Congress. Sherfulis McCormick also faces criminal charges for misusing millions of dollars of taxpayer money. If convicted, she could face up to 53 years in prison. The Ethics Committee will recommend a punishment in the coming weeks. Sherfulness McCormick has denied any wrongdoing, and after today's decision, she said, I look forward to proving my innocence. Vice President J.D. Vance presided over the first meeting of the Trump administration's new anti-fraud task force today.

Vance and Vice Chair Andrew Ferguson, who's head of the Federal Trade Commission, said the task force would focus on prosecuting and preventing fraud with a whole government approach. What we're going to actually do is force the bureaucracy to take this seriously and work together as political principles to make sure that we stop. allowing fraudsters to steal the American people's money. The inaugural meeting comes as the administration is targeting Minnesota, saying there's fraud in the state's social services programs. It prompted the administration to crack down on the illegal immigration of the Twin Cities

and withhold some Medicaid funds. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls said the state is the target of a campaign of retribution. Turning overseas, Austria is now the latest nation to draw up sweeping social media restrictions for young people. The nation's governing coalition agreed in principle to ban social media for children under the age of 14. High-tech methods of age verification would be employed. Officials said legislation will be drafted by the end of June. The risks associated with excessive social media use range from low self-esteem and addictive behavior to cyberbullying,

which is to say mobbing, loneliness, and in the most tragic cases, even suicide. What we wouldn't tolerate in person, We shouldn't accept in the digital world either. The Austrian government also plans to teach media literacy and dealing with artificial intelligence in schools. In 2024, Australia passed the first social media ban for children under 16. Since then, France, Spain, Denmark, and other nations have announced plans of their own. And on Wall Street, stocks closed out their worst week since the Iran War began.

The fifth straight losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost. Industrial average lost nearly 800 points or 1.7%. The NASDAQ plummeted by more than 2%. And the S&P 500 also finished firmly in the red. Still to come on the news hour, how Ukraine is developing new technology to intercept Russian drones. An army veteran faces conspiracy charges over an anti-ice protest.

And David Brooks and Ruth Marcus weigh in on the week's political headlines. This is the PBS News News. from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. Earlier this month, President Trump said he didn't want Ukraine's help with drone defense, saying Ukrainian President Volodemir Zelenskyy was the last person he'd turned to. But as the war with Iran continuing, countries in the Gulf have been lining up for Ukraine's guidance on how to counter drones.

Just today, Zelensky was in Saudi Arabia to strike a deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky filed this report from Ukraine. At a secret location in Ukraine, a local drone manufacturer demos its latest weapons. A sting drone capable of intercepting the Iranian-designed Shah-Had suicide drone, Russia routinely launches into Ukraine. The sting is fast, accurate, and crucially cheap. Since its first successful strike a year ago, Interceptors like this one made by the defense tech firm Wild Hornets have taken out around 4,000 Shahid-type drones. This sting drone is a perfect example of the asymmetric warfare that Ukrainians excel at.

It costs between $1,300 and $2,200, and it goes up against Iranian and Russian Shahed drones that cost around $50,000 to make. It's a technology that, until now has largely been ignored by America's defense tech industry. That's traditionally focused on making exquisite and expensive weaponry that can take decades to develop. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. Instead, the White House has stepped back from Ukraine, appropriating no new funds for the war since Trump took office.

This hurts Ukraine's war effort against Russia, of course. But there are increasing concerns in Washington that it's also making the U.S. less able to recognize and prepare for a host of emerging threats from American adversaries like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China, who are all working together and absorbing lessons from the Ukrainian battlefield. Now, the Iran War has exposed America's over-reliance on multi-million dollar munitions to shoot down cheap Iranian Shahheads, according to Wild Hornet spokesman Alex Roslin, who argues the math just doesn't make sense.

They're using $4 million dollar Patriot missiles. Patriots are scarce, but the United States has reportedly used 300 patriots to knock down Shahad drones fired by Iran. That's $1.2 billion a patriot against 300 Shahads. And we could have taken down those drones with our intercepted drones for around $600,000. That's something that the world could learn from Ukraine. Not everyone is ignoring developments in Ukraine, a representative of General Cherry, another Ukrainian drone company that makes a staggering 100,000 drones per month, which incidentally is the total amount of drones made in America annually, said interest in their technology has

surged since the start of the Iran war. Another flagship product, General Cherry, here. Did the interest in joint production, joint manufacturing, did it increase, did it increase after the war in Iran started. Yes, they have a lot of interests. And us, we have more than 10 different negatation process right now. The reason it's so important for these drones to be battle tested is because Ukrainian engineers from companies like General Cherry

that has designed this new prototype are constantly improving the design. design and this one here takes the original drone interceptor to the next level. The reason that these workstations are empty right now is because the engineers who usually work here are out in the field testing these. Our soldiers make it on the position. General Cherry's updated model will fly at close to 250 miles per hour, fast enough to take out a jet-powered Shah Head. In just a few years, the companies managed to set up a full production line.

From 3D printing parts to testing its ready drones. A small handful of American defense companies are actually developing their technology out of Ukraine. We essentially use this to kind of capture data. Vermeer, founded by New Yorker Brian's stream, is one. It's just replacing the GPS antenna. The firm produces navigation systems that allow drones carrying several hundred pounds of munitions to fly deep into enemy territory undetected, using an AI-driven navigation system

that's immune to spoofing and jamming. Vermeer's clients include the Ukrainian armed forces and the U.S. Air Force. The Russians are very good at jamming and spoofing GPS. So my company, we build a solution for that. We call it VPS, visual positioning system. Information is power. The information I'm sharing back to Americans

is incredibly powerful, very valuable to any nation that wants to compete in this new found kind of drone, drone unmanned arms race, we appeared to be involved in there. The more we kind of pull back, we will lose out tremendously. America's relationship with Ukraine has changed drastically since Trump came into office. In the years following the invasion, Congress approved massive aid in arms packages, amounting to nearly $175 billion in total since. 2020, making Ukraine the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance in modern history.

Since Trump took office, that number has dropped to zero dollars. While everyone agrees that America's pivot away from Kiev hurts Ukraine, some are starting to wonder aloud if it hurts America too. Ukrainians in terms of weapons sales. I put this question to a panel of security experts at a recent U.S.-Ukraine Security Summit in Washington. The less you invest, the less presence you have of U.S. people on the ground, learning what's going on. And I would say, but we've cut off our nose to spite our face. We're going to cost our taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in failed expertise because we're not listening.

At the same time, America's main adversaries, China, Iran, and North Korea have all continued to support their ally Russia in the war. a major supplier of both the Russian and Ukrainian defense sectors, China is especially positioned to suck up information from both sides of the front line. The Chinese are learning a lot from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rushdoshi covers China at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. In 2022, when Russian invaded Ukraine, he was on the China team at the National Security Council. He says Beijing's own military capabilities are advancing, thanks to its backing of Moscow. They've seen that the Russians initially did not perform well.

They want to fix that. Second, they're learning about the future of warfare. What exactly matters in the conflict in the 21st century, where you've seen the proliferation of drones and other technology that wasn't as salient in past conflicts. They're learning more about that. Third, they've learned a lot about the need to sustain your own industrial base and economy. Right now, you could argue the U.S. has learned some of that lesson,

but we're slower to adopt that lesson and diffuse it through our military than China. Recent reporting suggests that Trump, administration is learning its lesson the hard way. After coming under sustained attack from Iranian Shah Heads, the American military is now working with Ukrainian advisors in the Middle East after having initially refused a Ukrainian proposal to partner on interceptor drones last year. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Ukraine. So have we seen the war in Ukraine is providing a real-time testing ground for nations defending against drones. But on identified drones are also a concern here in the United States.

Liz Landers is here with more on a recent incident at a military base in Louisiana. John, the week of March 9th, a swarm of drones repeatedly hovered around Barkstale Air Force Base in northwest Louisiana. A spokesperson for the base tells PBS News Hour that it was unauthorized and criminal activity that's now being investigated by both federal and local law enforcement. ABC News reported that the drone flights lasted four hours at a time, deliberately maneuvered within the airspace over the base and appeared to be jam-resistant. Marksdale is a key facility for the U.S. in the ongoing fight with Iran, housing B-52 bombers and nuclear weapon storage facilities.

For more on this, we turn to retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dave Deptula. He is now the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies General. Thank you for joining us this evening. You bet, Liz. Good to be here. We just saw in Simon's story how advanced Ukraine's counterdron technology is, And yet, the U.S. is having trouble stopping all these drones that Iran is launching at its neighbors. How is it that Iran is so advanced here and that the U.S. is not? Well, what I would tell you is that with respect to Ukraine, who are the real experts, with respect to defense,

is they're much better at defending against drone attacks because for them, this is an existential fight. Russia is trying to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign country, erase its people, identity, and culture. So when a nation is facing that kind of threat every day, it adapts with extraordinary speed and seriousness. And that's why I think that it behooves the United States and our military to partner with Ukraine and learn from all their experience. in defending against the drone assaults from the Russians. Now, with respect to Iran, I think we need to be careful in defending or defining what the issue is because we essentially have reduced Iran's ability to employ their cruise missiles and drones very, very significantly.

Doesn't mean that it's been eliminated, but that's part of the objective in law. launching the assaults that you've seen today so very successfully applied against the Iranians. When you look at that drone swarm that happened over Barksdale Air Force Base earlier this month, what stands out to you? And how should the base commanders handle those kinds of situations? Well, it's a great question. First, I think it's important to keep this event in perspective. There was no mission impact from these incidents. Operations continued, and there's no indication that the activity disrupted the base's core functions. Now, all that said, the absence of mission impact should not be mistaken for the absence of a problem,

because unauthorized drone activity around sensitive military installations is still a serious security concern. for all the reasons one might imagine. Now, the good news is, the U.S. military does have the capacity to deal with this. We have the technology, the operational experience, and the institutional knowledge to address these threats. So the issue is less about whether we can respond and more about whether the responsible organizations are putting in a priority and resources against the problem. In particular, a service with the primary responsibility for base defense, the United States Army,

needs to increase its efforts on this topic. So it's an area that requires greater attention, greater involvement, investment, and a much greater sense of urgency that has been lent to the issue today. Who do you think is behind this incident at Barkdale? Because we've seen that China has demonstrated very sophisticated drone. use just for entertainment purposes. For example, they had a Guinness Book of World Records event last year where there were more than 7,500 drones that lit up the night sky in this just demonstration just for entertainment there in that city. Yeah, well, that is, and I've witnessed several of those entertainment displays, but those should

not be confused with battlefield performance. Flying thousands of unmanned, aircraft in a scripted show under controlled conditions really different from operating in combat under jamming, interference, attrition, and attack. So the military question is not whether they can do choreography, it's whether they can function in a contested environment. Sir, what kind of information can be obtained and gleaned if you have drone swarms that are hovering over these critical military installations for up to four hours at a time? Well, once again, it's a indication of serious concern because it's one thing to observe. It's another thing to turn that observation into the kind of lethal attacks that we saw Ukraine

execute against the Russians in some of their highly publicized activities where they launched drones out of trucks and destroyed with several Russian long-range bombers. So that, quite frankly, is the area of concern, and that's why I say we really need to increase our attention on taking action. I would suggest that command and control is an extraordinarily piece or extraordinarily important piece of this equation. And that authority to engage drones indicating hostile intent needs to be distributed down to the lowest possible levels. And those, these were all issues that the military is addressing and is facing. But we do need to turn up the emphasis in

investment in this area. General Dave Debtula, thank you for joining us. My pleasure. When a U.S. Army veteran was arrested on conspiracy charges for his role in an anti-ice protest in Spokane, Washington last summer, it was the first time an American had been charged with conspiracy in connection with the ongoing ice protests. Some legal experts saw it as an escalation of the administration's efforts to suppress even criminalize First Amendment rights. Special correspondent Aaron Glantz has the story which was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center. The sound of banging on Army veteran Bejan Mavala's front door startled him awake at 6 a.m., the morning of July 15th, 2025. Something's not right, and I went and I looked out the upstairs window. The streets all closed off, and there's a bunch of guys with rifles.

It was the FBI, and they had come to arrest him. My dad very, very quickly after that was like, you know, Bej, it's the FBI. They've got a warrant. Bajan was arrested for conspiracy for his role in an anti-ice protest more than a month earlier. I'm in a Afghanistan veteran. I'm going to America, Sesson. Bajun kept his cool in handcuffs while the FBI searched his pockets. Have you been ready to rights? His father recorded this video.

My son is steady as a rock saying, you know, he's an Afghanistan veteran, that this is unjust. If convicted, Bajun would face up to six years in prison. prison. I don't think that you really realize how far away we've come from democracy until you open the door and see federal agents to arrest your son for a nonviolent protest. Bejan comes from a military family. His parents both served in the army. His father, Bayjun Ray Mavala, a retired intelligence officer, earned three bronze stars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and Bayesian served in Afghanistan at the same time. I think that might be my favorite photograph in the entire world. The younger Mavala provided signals intelligence in Kandahar

province, one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan. His unit suffered casualties, including one time a fellow soldiers stepped on an IED. There was three amputations, three three traumatic brain injuries. I was maybe 10, 15 yards back. My son's incredibly brave. He believes that you should do the things you're supposed to do. After coming home from the war, Bajran moved to the Pacific Northwest. He felt he'd done his duty. Like many veterans, he said he wanted to find some peace. I bought the land and it's beautiful. There's tons of trees. Like I've seen wolves on it. There's been moose. There's been bears. You know, like, it's quiet.

But a few years later in 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Bejan felt compelled to serve again, this time out of uniform, volunteering to help dozens of America's Afghan allies come to the United States. Every single person here, except for the people who are indigenous to the Americas is an immigrant or comes from immigrants. It's absolutely ludicrous to think that we can get away with not bringing people in, especially people who we told, hey, if you help us, we'll help you. Five weeks before his arrest, Bejan saw a Facebook post from the former president of the

Spokane City Council. Two men with pending asylum applications had been detained at a routine ice check-in, and were going to be transported for deportation. I am going to sit in front of the bus, he wrote. Feel free to join me. Happened to be scrolling through and saw it pop up. And I was like, oh, well, I have time. I'll swing by and see what's going on.

I'm pretty upset about how this country is treating immigrants. The people they rolled up were legal asylum seekers. They've been doing everything right. There was no reason for them to be detained. The protest was, for the most part, peaceful. But at times, it turned contentious. Beijing can be seen in this video briefly tangling with mass federal agents. One ICE agent was.

It pushes Bayesian in the back, knocking Bejan into another who grabs him. Bejan and the agent shove each other and then disengage, then demonstrators back up and link arms to try to block the gate to stop ICE from taking the asylum seekers away. Dozens of people were arrested, but Beijan wasn't among them. Richard Barker, the acting U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington State, had monitored the protest from his office on the other side of the Spokane River. I went to bed that evening feeling like this situation could have been a lot worse than how it ended up. Barker had worked for the DOJ for 11 years and focused on prosecuting drug smugglers and murderers.

But the day after the Spokane protest, the Justice Department sent him and the 92 other U.S. attorneys nationwide, a memo that demanded they prioritize prosecutions of ICE protesters. So Barker authorized an investigation. His staff started preparing a conspiracy indictment against Bejan Mavala and eight others, something Barker knew he couldn't support. Nobody was really hurt. None of the protesters were hurt. Fortunately, none of the law enforcement officers were hurt either. He was aware that other U.S. attorneys had been ousted for refusing to comply with Trump Justice Department orders.

And he worried about his ability to act ethically if he stayed on the job. So he resigned. I didn't feel in this case that a conspiracy charge that would carry a six-year term of incarceration was true to who I was or to who I wanted to be as a federal prosecutor. Two days after Barker quit, his successor signed the indictment, charging Bayesian and the others with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. The first time conspiracy charges had been brought against ICE protesters. In a statement to the news hour, the DOJ said it respects the First Amendment and the right of Americans to peacefully protest,

but will never tolerate the obstruction of lawful immigration operations or putting federal agents in harm's way. Should we go in? The day he was arrested, Bejan was getting ready to move into a new house. He and his girlfriend, Kate, bought it with a VA mortgage. This is the service uniform. I was in nine years. Kate's also an Afghanistan war veteran. She deployed as a medic.

We're not weak people. We are willing to fight for what is right, which is, I mean, it's a First Amendment issue. Bejan agrees and is standing his ground. They say that you were part of a felony conspiracy to impede or assault a federal officer. Conspiracy requires people communicating and like planning it out and like saying, we're going to do this and this is why we're going to do it and this is how we're going to do it. None of that happened, at least as far as, not as far as I know. I wasn't part of any of it.

Since Bejan's arrest in July, the use of federal conspiracy charges has spread. Prosecutors have filed them against demonstrators in Chicago and also investigated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry for the same crime. What these people are doing to my son and that they're doing all across the country is unconscionable and people need to know about it. How you all doing today? Inspired by Bayesian's arrest and concerned about what he sees as the misuse of government authority, his father announced in January that he was running for Congress, challenging Spokane's Republican incumbent.

It was a day after federal agents fatally shot René Good in Minneapolis, and he stopped by a demonstration in Spokane. This is me and my son in Afghanistan. He was arrested. He was arrested by the FBI. It's unconscionable and it's un-American. The shock of Renee Goods killing also inspired former acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker to speak out about what he sees as the government's hypocrisy. This is his first on-camera interview since resigning. In the one instance, really nobody was hurt, and the protesters were charged.

In another instance, somebody's life was taken, and DOJ wants to give that person immunity. These are things that are supposed to be fundamentally American. These are the things that when I joined the military, I thought I was joining to protect. You have a right as an American to voice your opinion. You can't do it violently. You can't do it in a way that harms other people. But you have a right to stand up for what you believe in. Oh, you got it.

Beijing's jury trial is scheduled for May 18th. For PBS News Hour, I'm Aaron Glance in Spokane, Washington. The collapse of a deal to end the partial government shutdown and more fallout from the war in Iran give us a lot to talk about this Friday. And for that, we turn to Brooks and Marcus. That's the Atlantic's David Brooks and Ruth Marcus of the New Yorker. Jonathan K. Hart is away this evening. So we wake up to the news that overnight, the Senate Republicans and the Democrats have cut a deal. Unanimous passed by unanimous consent. Then a few hours later, the Speaker of the House calls it a joke, says he can't vote for it. David, what do you make of all this? Oh, we'll get to watch the decline of American democracy in real time.

You know, I thought the Democrats were wrong to start this thing. I think if you don't like what the opposing party does, you go to the voters and you try to beat the other party in the next election. You don't shut down the government. But it turns out the Republicans who haven't learned Democracy 101 either. Because when you only control 50% of the House, sometimes you have to compromise to make the ship run. And the House Republicans apparently don't understand that.

And so they're unwilling to go up with the Senate compromise. which was a compromise. And it had some things Republicans didn't like, but guess what? That's politics. And so to me, what's happening in the country is that people are not saying who's right and who wrong, is this, are we blaming the Democrats or they're blaming the Republicans?

They're saying the whole ruling class is screwed up. The entire elite establishment of this country cannot run things. And so that impulse, which has been building for decades, is what got Donald Trump elected. And if we continue to see Americans looking at their ruling class and saying, these people are total loser. total incompetence, then we're going to elect the craziest person we can. And Donald Trump is going to look sane compared to whoever comes next,

whether it's a Democrat or a Republican. Ruth, what can be done about that to try to change that? Oh, it's very easy. We'll just fix it in a nanosecond. Look, you and I, all three of us, have lived through government shutdown after government shutdown after government shutdown. And I want to take a little bit of issue with you, David, because Democrats don't have a lot of levers of power, right?

They don't have the control of the House. They don't have control of the Senate. They don't have control of the White House. They have a grievance with the way DHS is being run. They have a particular grievance with the way ICE is being run. And they have very few levers of power to try to achieve reform on that, which, by the way, they weren't getting out of this deal. So that's an important point to be made. But when you have one party in charge of these three axes of government, and it can't even,

and agree with itself on funding one of these important agencies and allowing TSA agents to be paid, you are going to get blamed for that. And I think as much as people are just generally frustrated with government writ large, they are gonna be particularly frustrated at the end of this week and at the end of next week and probably the week after that with the operations of the Republican Congress.

People are furious at these delays at airports. And I think that, are unnerved by something else that happened this week that's not really related to the shutdown, but goes to trust in government, which is the accident that had, the tragic accident that happened at LaGuardia. I think this all folds together in a just state of real public unhappiness. What I want to say with you, you talk about the reaction of the public. And this started out, as David pointed out, talking about ICE, the Democrats talking about ICE. Then it became the TSA agents. And then today, the speaker made it firmly an issue about border control.

Talk about the messaging war that's going on here. Well, the messaging war is, I think, primarily for people, what have you done for me lately? Or more accurately, what have you done to me lately? And if you are making me, this was completely predictable, by the way. If you're not going to pay TSA agents, they're going to end up not showing up on the job. they're going to leave. The fallout from this is going to take weeks, months to fix. God forbids some people who aren't adequately trained,

allow something to sneak through in the interim. So I think the messaging war of you are inconveniencing me or you are making me feel unsafe is going to win out over the border messaging war because, by the way, there's so much money in the ice bucket, pardon that pun, I didn't mean to make it. That the ICE is fully funded. So failing to fund DHS here is actually not affecting border enforcement, but it is affecting, as Lisa said in her very good piece,

so many thousands of other people. David, the president tried to take unilateral action to try to do something about this. He sent ICE agents into airports to help TSA. He signed an executive order to have the TSA paycheck start flowing again. What do you make of that? Well, it's unconstitutional, but we've crashed through that so many times. I'm glad he's doing it.

I flew a bit this week, and people were going up to the TSA agents wherever I was and thanking them for showing up to work, and God bless those people. If I could nurse our disagreement over... Oh, good. You know, the Democrats controlled all three branches, or all three House Senate and White House through much of the 20th century, through large sections of the 20th century. And it didn't occur to the Republicans, as I don't think it would have occurred to the Democrats of that. area to shut down the government because they assumed that making the U.S. government function

well and that democracy was more important than the partisan fight of the next two weeks and we're winning the news cycle. And they assumed that if they degrade the government, then the voters would punish them. And Newt Gingrich broke through that norm a long time ago. And now we're seeing the norms degrade. And so Congress has become dysfunctional and TSA is becoming degraded because of all this. The federal agencies are becoming degraded because of the repeated government shutdowns and the Trump assault. And so we're just seeing a destruction of the basic functions of government. And to me, that's the most important, more important issue than who happens to get blamed and who's doing what messaging on what cable TV show.

Well, that's where actually we can agree, because one of the really unfortunate fallouts here is that the fundamentally important issue, which is not who wins the messaging war. And we could keep going on that and we'll keep arguing when we're off the air because that's going to be a fun weekend. And another thing is that there does need to be. I think the public fully well understands that ICE needs reform, that what happened in Minnesota is not okay, that what we're seeing across the country is not okay and that we need to put some controls there.

That is something that the way I think that this budget fight is going to play, itself out is not going to end up happening because Republicans will manage to get the funding done through a reconciliation measure. I'm sorry to use that word. That will be done with a majority vote. And so the Democrats will have lost their leverage for reform. Well, another thing that the American public is a section of the American public is questioning and wondering about it is the war in Iran.

The president has said at the beginning that we had won militarily, that we had pounded the Iranians. and then he says that they're negotiating, and now he's sending more troops. What's going on here? Yeah, I guess my big picture is that we are achieving militarily. There's a curve of the more and more we achieve militarily, the more we degrade the Iranian regime, the more we make it hard for them to build munitions going on to the future. And that's so positive. But there's another curve, that's the economic pain curve.

And the economy is being hit, the stock market's being hit, the world economy, Christine Lagarde, the European, former head of the European Bank, is like saying it's going to be a catastrophe. And so at some point these two curves cross, and that's when it's time to end the war for sure. The problem is the downward sloping of the economic curve is exponential. We make incremental progress in degrading surround's ability, but the collapse of the economy could go out of control. And so to me, I think, you know, Raka Rubio said today two to four more weeks, I'm rooting for a shorter time as possible. They can say we degraded Iran seriously. They're not a regional power.

Let's declare victory and get out before we cause pain all around the world. I think your way too optimistic in terms of your assessment of the upward military curve. Yes, the regime has been degraded militarily. Yes, important people have been taken out. Does that make us safer or does that make us less safe? Because let's be clear, we have not achieved what the president told us. us on night one we wanted to achieve, which was regime change. The regime is not changing. If anything, the regime may be coming more hardline, more inclined to you to insist on developing

nuclear power, nuclear capabilities. It may be more incentivized to go after nuclear weapons, which is the biggest potential threat to the U.S., and I take it very, very seriously. it may be more incentivized by this latest round of attacks than it was previously, even after June, even after other assaults. And in the meantime, we are now negotiating to fix something that wasn't broken when we started, which is access to the Strait of Hormuz. So I do not see the military arc in the same positive light, though there have been some achievements that you do.

And, David, there's some elements of the president's supporters who are questioning this, who say they feel a little bit betrayed. Joe Rogan earlier this month. He ran on no more wars, and of this, what's happening now, we can't even really clearly define why he did it. Tucker Carlson, this war is something he promised he wouldn't do, not once but countless times. Megan Kelly says no one should have to die for a foreign country.

Yeah, I'm puzzled by this. When you look at the polls, I would not say too many MAGA people are flaking off. They're mostly supporting. But the sort of MAGA people that I know in the media and in podcast, The people I started the Weekly Standard with all these years ago, Tucker Carlson got him Christopher Goldwell, they're really upset because they're more philosophically inclined. This really is a betrayal of what they thought they were getting. But I wouldn't say it's yet a mass movement among the Republican ranks. Ruth? I think, you know, we need to wait and see because the unhappiness with TSA is magnified at the unhappiness at the gas pump,

the unhappiness at the grocery store. And that is something that the unhappiness with what's going on in your 401. And that's something the president is going to have to really deal with. Ruth Marcus, David Brooks. Thank you both very much. Thank you. And be sure to tune into Washington Week tonight. Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel assess whether President Trump's war of choice is becoming a war of necessity. That's tonight on Washington Week.

And tomorrow on horizons, William Brangham looks at the risks of potential awards of AI companionship. And a special edition of Compass Points this weekend, Nick Schifrin takes the program to Telibi for an in-depth look at the unprecedented U.S.-Israeli Military and Intelligence Alliance. For all those shows, check your local PBS stations. And that is The News Hour for this Friday night. I'm John Yang. For all of us here at The News Hour, thanks for watching. See you later.