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

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Friday on the News Hour, Ukraine's president visits the White House amid tensions over long-range missiles and discussions with Vladimir Putin. The disfigured, injured, and traumatized children and parents of Gaza begin the long road to recovery as the tenuous ceasefire holds. Plus, the Trump administration provides a $20 billion lifeline to Argentina's flailing economy. 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. And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, Ukraine's president visits the White House amid tensions over long-range missiles and discussions with Vladimir Putin. The disfigured, injured, and deeply traumatized children and parents of Gaza are beginning a long road to recovery as the fragile ceasefire holds. I saw many horrific scenes that broke my heart when I entered the the hospital. Children with limbs amputated. What do those children do? Despite major cuts to critical government agencies, the Trump administration provides a $20 billion lifeline to Argentina's

flailing economy. Welcome to the News Hour. Ukrainian President Volussela, Vladimir Zelensky returned to Washington today to meet with President Trump, who is continuing his efforts to bring an end to Russia's nearly four-year invasion. But Mr. Trump didn't seem willing to give Ukraine what it really wanted from the visit. That's long-range U.S. Tomahawk missiles that could strike deep into Russia. And late today, while Zelensky was speaking with reporters, Mr. Trump posted on social media that Russia and Ukraine should, quote, stop where they are.

Let both claim victory. Let history decide. For the second time in his many months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was back at the White House today, pressing President Trump for greater U.S. assistance in the war with Russia. I think that I'm confident that with your help, we can stop this war, and we really need it. This time, the aid request centers on long-range U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, the kind of weaponry Ukraine first sought under the Biden administration, and now seeks again from President Trump, who for months has sounded reluctant to provide it.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawk. And it could mean big escalation. It could mean a lot of bad things can happen. Today's meeting comes on the heels of a lengthy phone call yesterday between President Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin. In that conversation, Mr. Trump floated his openness to giving Ukraine the long-range weapons. say, would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand Tomahawks to your opposition? I did say that to him. I said it just that way. He didn't like the idea. Putin, according to a top advisor, warned President Trump during their call that

Tomahawks wouldn't change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the U.S.-Russia relationship. The two leaders have planned a possible second summit in Budapest, Hungary, after their initial Alaska summit back in August failed to advance peace talks. The fight itself has long been in a stalemate. This map shows Ukrainian territory Russia controlled exactly one year ago. And this map shows what Russia controls today. Neither side has made substantial territorial gains. The Ukrainians understand that no single weapon system is going to be a game changer or more importantly a game ender for the war. Retired Major General David Baldwin was

recently adjutant general of the California National Guard, which has been training Ukrainian troops since before the full-scale invasion by Russia. He says the U.S. weapons would make a difference. It will change sort of the strategic effects of what's going on in the negotiations, because now the Ukrainians will be able to have enhanced capability to reach out and strike targets in Russia. Designed to fly below radar detection, the weapons can strike targets more than 1,500 miles away, deep into Russian territory well beyond Moscow.

Targets like key military sites, oil and energy infrastructure. For months and as recently as yesterday, Russia has bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure with hundreds of drones and missiles, causing widespread blackouts. Zelensky today said the weaponry would help compel Putin to negotiate. I think that Russians are afraid about Tamahaks, really afraid because a strong weapon. And they know what we have, what kind of weapon we have, our production. And they understand that combination with Tomahawks, because we speak about it. To help dissect the current state of affairs, we turn to John Feiner.

He was the Deputy National Security Advisor during the Biden administration. He's now a distinguished visiting fellow at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Welcome back to the programs. Good to have you. Thanks. Great to be here. So in recent days, President Trump has sent mixed signals about sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Today, he sounded disinclined to do so. Zelensky made the same request of the Biden administration and was turned down. What's the dilemma this current White House faces when deciding whether or not to provide these weapons?

Well, to be honest, I wish I didn't have to say this, but I'm not terribly surprised that it looks like the White House is moving away from providing Tomahawks. And that's because, if anything, since the White House, this White House inherited Ukraine policy from the Biden administration, they have done less for Ukraine over time, not more. So the idea that they would have handed the Ukrainians an even more advanced system than was provided during the Biden administration, I think always seemed unlikely. But in some ways, what's even more damaging than the idea that they're not going to be providing the Ukrainians, a system that Ukrainians believe they need is that it appears that President Trump has basically acknowledged asking,

Russia what it thought of this move, hearing a very negative reaction from President Putin, and then moving against an idea that he had been contemplating because he didn't like how Russia reacted to it and because he doesn't want to sour the mood in advance of an upcoming summit meeting with President Putin in Hungary in the coming days. And so the rationale almost seems that in this case is damaging as the fact itself, which is that he doesn't seem to want to cross the wishes of Vladimir Putin. We'll say more about that, because the Kremlin reportedly requested yesterday's call between President Trump and Putin

and as you say now Trump says that he's open to meeting Putin for a second summit potentially within weeks what's the play here Putin requesting this conversation on the eve of Zelensky's visit with the caveat that obviously

I'm not on the inside of any of this anymore but it seems pretty clear just from observing and because we have seen this play run once before you'll remember remember that a few months ago, President Trump for the first time started to grow frustrated with Russia, started to believe actually that it wasn't Ukraine that was responsible for this war being continued against President Trump's wishes. But Ukraine actually saying yes to a bunch of

the president's ceasefire requests. And Russia then saying that it wasn't interested in the ceasefire. That got President Trump irritated. He said that he would impose severe consequences on Russia. and he said that even just hours before meeting with President Putin in Alaska. Then during that meeting, he treated President Putin with a high degree of respect, almost reverence, the red carpet. You'll remember President Putin riding in the back of President Trump's limousine. And then coming out of that meeting, all of a sudden, there was no more talk of severe consequences, economic consequences in that case.

And the president went back to musing about negotiations to try to end the war a different way. I think the Russians learned a lesson from that case that these big grand meetings in some ways are something that President Trump covets, that he likes being seen on the big stage with someone he, for reasons I can only speculate about, respects President Putin, and that offering another one of those sessions would be a way to turn down the temperature in the United States and in this administration and prevent them from moving forward with a more aggressive policy position. It seems to be working for now, and we'll see what happens. during this meeting in Hungary, which I guess will be the next step. They'll send some staff out before that to prepare the meeting. But the next big step is going to be President Putin and President Trump getting together again, and we know how that ended the last time. On the battlefield, this war appears largely stalemated with neither side making significant territorial gains. What does that say about where this conflict stands and how realistically it might end?

Well, I think it's worth just acknowledging that that in and of itself, what you've just described as an extraordinary accomplishment, first and foremost, for the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian military, that they have held off by all estimations, much larger, much stronger military force who people believed before this war began would march all the way to Kiev and possibly even conquer all of Ukraine in a matter of weeks. And now here we are, you know, three years on with the war still being fought in the extreme eastern part of Ukraine and at great cost. The Ukrainian people have paid an enormous price for the stalemate that has been achieved, and they deserve, I think, a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for holding off the Russian army. The cost being imposed, by the way, on the Russians is extraordinary as well. We estimate now more than a million casualties dead and wounded on the Russian side. And so, you know, given the developments in the Russian conversations with the United States and the fact that the presidents will be seeing each other,

given what happened at the White House today and the idea that the U.S. not going to be, it looks like, ramping up support for Ukraine anytime soon. It does appear this conflict will be stalemated for the foreseeable future. John Feiner, thanks as always for your perspective. We appreciate it. Thanks. In the day's other headlines, John Bolton pleaded not guilty today to federal charges that he mishandled classified documents. The former national security advisor during President Trump's first term did not speak to reporters as he left a Maryland courthouse.

He faces 18 counts, including transmission and retention of top secret national defense information. It's the third criminal case the administration has pursued in recent weeks against critics of the president. In response, Bolton said the charges are part of Trump's quote, effort to intimidate his opponents. At the White House today, President Trump, Trump, appeared to confirm recent reports that Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro had offered the U.S. a stake in the country's oil wealth and other natural resources. That offer was first reported by the New York Times and was seen as an effort to ease tensions between the two countries.

Speaking to reporters as he hosted Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, Trump used coarse language to describe Maduro's motivations. He has offered everything. He's offered everything. You're right? You know why? because he doesn't want to f*** down with the United States. Those comments come as the Associated Press and others are reporting that the U.S. military has captured the survivors of yet another strike on a suspected drugboat in the Caribbean. It's believed to be at least the sixth strike on such vessels since August. The administration has not publicly acknowledged the strike.

The New York Times is pushing back against President Trump's latest legal action against the paper. Yesterday, his team refiled a $15 billion lawsuit, alleging that the Times, along with two reporters and book publisher, Penguin Random House, had defamed him during the 2024 election. A judge in Florida threw out the original complaint last month, calling it, quote, decidedly improper and impermissible. A spokesperson for the paper said the latest filing has no merit, adding that, quote, nothing has changed today. This is merely an attempt to stifle independent reporting and generate PR. attention. Britain's Prince Andrew says he will give up his royal titles after renewed attention to his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement, the younger brother of King Charles said, quote, the continued accusations about me distract from the work of his

majesty and the royal family. His announcement comes after the release this week of excerpts from a posthumous memoir from Virginia Roberts Juffray, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Prince Andrew at the age of 17. Andrew has long denied the accusations. He will no longer be known as the Duke of York, but remains a prince. In Madagascar, the Army colonel who led a military coup was sworn in as president today. Colonel Michael Rondrian Arina replaces former leader Andre Rajulina, who was forced to flee the country after weeks of youth-led protests against his government.

Colonel Rondriana Rina took his oath of office just three. three days after armed forces took control of the island nation of some 30 million people. He promised to respect and safeguard the Constitution and the rule of law. I call upon everyone to uphold peace, unity, and solidarity so that we may quickly restore our social and economic systems which have fallen into distress. We will protect and rebuild the entire system of governance and administration, aligning it with the true aspirations of the people. Randrian Arina has said he'll remain in charge for at least 18 months before any new

elections are held. The United Nations has condemned the military takeover as unconstitutional and Madagascar has been suspended from the African Union. Back in this country, Ford Motor is recalling more than 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. in two separate actions. The first involves more than 330,000 Ford Mustangs, which may have seatbelts that don't properly restrain people during a crash. The second involves certain F-series super duty trucks from 2020 to 2020. Those could have problems with their rearview cameras. Board has issued a record number

of recalls this year as it works to address a range of safety issues. The automaker says owners should bring their cars in to have them checked and that related repairs will be done free of charge. Don Wall Street today, stocks cruise to a solid end to the week after President Trump once again tried to ease worries over his China tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial average added nearly 240 points on the day. The NASDAQ rose more than 100 points, and the S&P 500 also posted decent gains. And Japan's former Prime Minister, Tomichi Muriyama, has died. He led a coalition government in the mid-1990s, but is perhaps best remembered

for issuing an unprecedented apology on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. In 1995, he said Japan's, quote, mistaken national policy caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. He resigned the following year, but the Muriyama statement, as it became known, became a part of Japan's political fabric. Officials say Tomichi Muriyama died today in his hometown. He was 101 years old. Still to come.

On the news hour, we take a closer look at the man President Trump has tasked. with slashing thousands of federal government jobs. David Brooks and Jonathan K. Part weigh in on the ongoing government shutdown. An actor John Lithgow reflects on his long career and process. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Last night, we brought you the story of the lingering trauma affecting so many Israelis since October 7th. Tonight, we turned to Gaza, where the health ministry says nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been killed over the last two years of fighting.

The scale of the death has been staggering and the toll on children overwhelming, tens of thousands killed and thousands left with grievous wounds of war, often treated with near medieval means due to a lack of supplies. Over the last year, Leila Milana Allen and our colleagues have followed treatment for some of these children and have this report. A warning, the story includes graphic images that are disturbing. No sight, no speech, no sound. Four-year-old Nail has had all his senses stolen by an airstrike, and it's getting worse. In May, Nail and his six-year-old brother were playing in the dusty pathways of Gaza's Nusera refugee camp, when an Israeli strike hit the tent next to them.

They were playing around me when the missiles suddenly hit us and shattered all our dreams and beautiful moments we once had in our life. Muhammad was killed instantly. Pieces of shrapnel lodged deep in Nail's brain, causing brain damage that's stolen his vision, his hearing and his speech. With barely any food or access to clean water, Israel has mostly blocked the delivery of AIDS since earlier this spring. He's suffering from severe malnutrition.

The filthy conditions in the hospital mean he's now caught meningitis, too. Unable to chew or move, what food they can get him is through a feeding tube. His tiny body can't hold out much longer. Before the war, Nail was one of the most active children. He loved to play a lot, and we used to go to the beach together. He's in pain right now, silently in pain, and cries without tears. The doctors here told us they don't know. what to do anymore. Nail's only chance is to be evacuated from Gaza for specialist treatment.

Without it, he'll die soon. He has the travel permit and foreign surgeons desperate to help him, but the Israeli authorities won't let him cross the border. Thousands more children have sustained life-changing injuries, which Gaza's hospitals, overwhelmed with the wounded, lacking in basic medical supplies and often under bombardment themselves, simply can't handle. A lucky few make it across the border into Egypt, but even there, the most severe cases need specialist help. Five-year-old Adam is one of those lucky ones, lucky to be alive, unlucky to have suffered many months of agony and be facing permanent disability because of how long his evacuation was denied. Displaced three times in the first few weeks of the war, Adam's father and sister were killed when the house they were sheltering in was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Adam was crushed by the rubble, shattering his arm.

It would have been a fairly simple surgery outside, but with the healthcare system in Gaza in full collapse, doctors could do little for him. I saw many horrific scenes that broke my heart when I entered the hospital. Children with limbs amputated. What do those children do? For two months, Adam waited in suffering. Four times they requested medical evacuation.

Each request denied. His arms condition remained critical. They did daily cleaning operations on his hand without anesthesia. His condition was excruciating. Finally, the border opened and Adam was taken to Lebanon. Because of the delay, he'd developed a chronic bone infection. It was so advanced, he was now suffering from a related brain injury. Adam's surgeon, Rassan Abou Sita, is a British-Palestinian doctor who's campaigned tirelessly

to bring injured girls and children to Beirut's American youth. University Hospital, one of the best in the region. The worst thing is that the kids that we are treating, we're treating the complications of long-term neglect for these injuries that have not been properly treated. Let's put it this way, a friend of mine who's an orthopedic surgeon, is still left in northern Gaza, tells me that half of the amputations that he's doing could have been saved. Those limbs could have been salvaged if they had been treated at the right time. has had to endure more than 60 surgeries on his arm to fix the damage from the infections.

It will never be fully functional again, and with his mother severely injured and the rest of his immediate family dead, his mental scars may be just as debilitating. For the rest of his life, he'll continue to relive the horrors he saw. He's witnessed so much pain and loss. The system exists to evacuate and treat these children, but Israel controls who can cross the border to access it. Barely a hundred children have managed to leave in the past 18 months. Many die while waiting.

A year ago, the world watched in horror as 19-year-old Shaban al-Daloo burned to death, an IV line still in his arm when Israel struck the Al-Axomatos hospital compound. His father, Ahmad, on fire himself, could do nothing to save him, but he managed to drag his other children from the flames. It was so hard seeing them burning alive. your heart apart, makes your soul wake and breaks you. Desperate to save his 10-year-old son Aboud from the same fate, Ahmed called on the international community to help force his son's emergency evacuation. But no help came. Days later, Abud died of his burns too.

He was the youngest of my kids and the one I spoiled the most. Helpless, the clock is ticking for Nail and thousands of other children like him. We've already lost our first child. We pray we won't lose our second. All they need is for a life-saving gate to be unlocked. There's little hope those prayers will be answered. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Leila Milana Allen in Beirut, Lebanon. financial lifeline for Argentina as it faces a deepening economic crisis. But the justification of the deal has raised major questions and criticism about its merits.

John Yang helps to break it down. Omna, the United States is exchanging dollars for Argentine pesos to prop up that currency, which has been losing value recently. President Trump announced the move on Tuesday as he met with Argentine President Javier Malay at the White House, and he made clear that this is contingent on Malay's Party winning legislative elections later this month. I'm with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win, but I think he's going to win.

And if he wins, we're staying with him, and if he doesn't win, we're gone. In addition, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has said the administration is trying to secure an additional $20 billion for Argentina through private banks and sovereign wealth funds. Monica DeBole is an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Monica, first of all, what's going on in Argentina that makes this necessary or they're trying to react to? So Argentina is facing the kind of problem that it usually faces. It's an economy that functions with both the peso and the dollar. So Argentina is a partially dollarized economy.

It uses the dollar as if it were its own currency. And oftentimes what happens is that they run into a shortage of dollars. So whenever they run out of dollars, they fall into crisis, which is what's happening now, and the U.S. is stepping in to provide the dollars that Argentina needs. But as you say, this happens periodically. This isn't going to fix it, is it? No, it's not going to fix it, because the underlying problem that Argentina has is precisely the fact that it uses two currencies rather than one. So they have their own currency, but they also use the dollar. And that's what always trips them up.

Whenever there is a shock of confidence in the system, whether because of some domestic problem that popped up or because of an external or international problem, they run out of dollars, they fall into trouble, and then somebody has to step in to rescue them. That somebody has usually been the International Monetary Fund, but as we've seen in the past few weeks, now we have the United States stepping in as well.

Is there a danger here of this crisis spreading through the region that the administration is trying to stop? What's at risk here? So that's a very good question because the answer is no. Argentina is not a country that poses any risks to either its neighbors

that surrounding the surrounding countries or to the United States or to the global economy. Argentina is not a systemic country in that sense. So in the past, when the U.S. has acted in sort of similar ways

to what it's doing in Argentina, now, it has done so because the country in question was systemic. In other words, it had the potential of having negative, the crisis in the country had the potential of having negative consequences on others. But this is not the case with Argentina right now. So there is no real economic rationale for the United States to be stepping in and doing this at this juncture. No economic rationale. The president said this is contingent on President Malay's party winning the legislative elections later this year. What is the president trying to advance? What interest is he trying to advance by doing this? He's trying to advance two interests.

So on the one hand, he's trying to prop up what he sees as a political ally. So Milay is very much perceived as a political ally of the administration. So there's an interest in keeping him in power and keeping him in office. He still has two years to go as president of Argentina. And the other the other driving motive here is geopolitical, because China is very much involved in Argentina. It is actually very much involved in the region as a whole. Argentina has a lot of lithium reserves. It also has a lot of rare earth reserves. So there is an interest, a geopolitical interest on the part of the U.S., in sort of confronting China, so to speak, in the region.

So I see this move by the administration as being completely. geopolitical and political in nature, not economic at all. You mentioned China, a lot of soybean farmers in the Midwest are angry because China stopped buying their product because of the trade war and is buying soybeans from Argentina. They see that this is a lifeline being thrown to a competitor. What do you say to that? Yeah, it is problematic because that is happening.

China has stopped buying soybeans from the United States. It's buying soy from Argentina and from Brazil, which Brazil is the largest producer in the region, but Argentina also produces a lot of grains and a lot of soybeans. And China is just stepped up its purchases of these products from both countries, but notably in our case here, Argentina. So yes, U.S. farmers have very much a right to be angry at this situation. You say there's no economic reason why the government has to do this, the United States has to do this. Is there a risk to the United States? States by doing this? There surely is, because this is a situation that the U.S. is walking

into without any endgame in sight. So in other words, the U.S. is stepping in to provide a lifeline for Argentina, but it doesn't really know how this ends. And with Argentina, the story usually goes like this. You lend to them. They usually don't pay back. So you face a situation, this is what's been going on with the IMF for the past 20-something years. And so what happens is you either have to keep lending to Argentina in order to keep them afloat and in order for you to repay yourself, or you stop lending to Argentina, in which case you throw them into crisis. So with the U.S., it's kind of a no-win situation here because the moment the U.S. steps in to provide Argentina with this lifeline, it either has to commit to stay in Argentina and keep providing

Argentina lifelines if it faces further problems down the road. or the U.S. at some point we'll have to step back. And when they do, Argentina will fall into a crisis and guess who will be blamed, the U.S. Monica DeBull, the Pearson Institute for International Economics. Thank you very much. Thank you. As the government shutdown enters its third full week,

the Trump administration is freezing billions of dollars in infrastructure funding across the country. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vote announced on social media today that his office is halting more than $11 billion in projects nationwide, many of them in Democratic-led cities. As our Liz Landers reports, it's the latest in a series of controversial moves by vote who has used the shutdown to advance the president's political agenda and oversee mass layoffs of federal workers. The chief of the White House Budget Office is rarely in the spotlight, but Russ Vote, who leads the Office of Management and Budget, has become a key figure in the government shutdown. And even the star of a meme video shared by the president on social media. They call him Darth Vader, but he's actually a very nice person.

Vote has been a key power broker during the shutdown, using his ex-account to. announce the government will freeze projects in blue states and sharing veiled threats to fire federal workers. If there's no funding for these programs, then what would you have us do? Yeah, I called for trauma within the bureaucracies. The bureaucracies hate the American people. How influential has he been in this shutdown from what you've seen? I think very influential. Any time you see a story about funding being halted is the one at the head of that chain of command making those calls. Damon Linker teaches political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He compares vote to an air traffic controller.

He knows where the money is coming from, where it's supposed to be going, who the key players in the administration and in the government are to ensure that the money gets to where it's supposed to be, and it also means he knows exactly where to go if he wants to stop money to clot back. During Mr. Trump's first term, he initially served as deputy director of the OMB. In 2019, he defied congressional subpoenas refusing to testify in House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. Vote then led OMB for the final two years of Trump's first term. We have many, many programs that are wasteful and inefficient that we can no longer afford. And at the president's direction, called on federal agencies to stop racial sensitivity

trainings, referring to them as divisive anti-American propaganda. Many of Vote and Trump's policy priorities were easily reversed by the Biden administration, fueling frustrations and plans for more permanent changes. Vote launched the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank aimed at confronting what they call the woke and weaponized agenda. of the ruling class. It provided research and policy ammunition to lawmakers and vote an organizing vehicle for four years to workshop policies that could be swiftly enacted in a future conservative presidency and be harder to undo. Vote penned an essay during this time describing the

country as in a post-constitutional moment. We did a lot of things in the first term. We just had a ton of paradigm shifts. But one of the things we did not do was reductions in force and we honestly learned about it in our years of exile. The Center for Renewing America features religious underpinnings, a guiding principle for vote and his worldview. Their website describes their mission to, quote, renew a consensus of America

as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending. Vote embraces what he's called Christian nationism. We need to be a country that is for God. We need to be for country and for community in the sense that we want to really reflect on the fact that we are a nation that's built on Judeo-Christian worldview. Vote wrote a key chapter of the conservative

policy proposal Project 2025 that advocated for centralizing government power to the White House, giving political appointees more authority and slashing government jobs and spending. It very clearly lays out exactly what he planned to do if he ended up back in that office. And so far, he's been following it pretty much to a T. And if anything, I've been surprised only by the aggressiveness with which he's done it. After Trump's win, Vote was back in a position to enact those changes, appointed to lead the OMB again.

Votes view, Linker says, gives Trump more power to shape government staffing. Everyone who works under him, this is tens of thousands of employees, are his employees. He can hire them and fire them at will. He can tell them not to do something or to do something, and they must obey under threat of losing their jobs. And would allow the executive branch to wield more power to enact their political agenda, including overstepping Congress on government spending and advocating for the administration to not follow court rulings they view as overreaching. Russ vote believes that in very crucial areas of the federal government, the president is in effect, superior to the other branches. After being installed as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

he halted most of the agency's work. Vote was also the architect of the administration's recisions package to Congress, cutting billions in foreign aid and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His moves have earned praise from the president. He's become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn't do any other way. Vote has used the shutdown to further push the president's agenda, freezing funding to so-called democratic projects, including green energy efforts in more than a dozen states, and halting funding for infrastructure projects in New York and Chicago. We'll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that are popular with Republicans, frankly, because that's the way it works. They wanted to do this, so we'll get a little taste of their own medicine.

If you didn't vote for him, you are his enemy, and he will. hurt you when and where he can. And a vote is perfectly content to help him enact that vision of governance. Vote has also enabled government agencies to fire more than 4,000 workers in recent days, including thousands at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department. And according to a memo obtained by PBS News Hour, Vote had charged the lead council at OMB to explore the possibility of not paying furloughed federal workers back pay, an idea that that even Speaker Mike Johnson batted down. You would expect Congress to rise up in opposition to this

and say you are usurping legislative powers, Mr. President. You cannot do this. It's in the Constitution. But this Congress is in the hands of a Republican Party that will not defy Trump. As the shutdown continues into another week, the administration has warned more layoffs could come soon and that OMB's cuts will continue.

For the PBS Newsout, I'm Liz Landers. For more on the week's political headlines, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart. That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC. Great to see you both. Hey, I'm not.

Can I get you quickly to weigh in on this news we just got that the president late today commuted the sentence of former New York Republican Congressman George Santos, who reported to prison this summer after pleading guilty to a laundry list of federal charges, including wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. The president said, at least he always had the courage and conviction to vote Republican.

Jonathan, what do you make of that decision by the president? It's Friday. So it's the theater of the absurd in the extreme. This guy stole from people. He did all sorts of horrible things. He was being held accountable for it. And, you know, the president, as we have seen many, many times, just used this as an opportunity to just stick his finger

in the eye of justice, of accountability, of everything that we used to think was normal, insane. David, what do you make of it? Yeah, I picked up on the sentence you read that Trump said he voted a Republican. And that was, that's the operative thing here. sin, crime, but he voted Republican. It made me think, is there any Republican that Trump would not commute or not pardon? And he's turned into a partisan game, the granting of pardons,

and Santos is going to claim he broke out of prison like Shawshank Redemption or something. I don't know what story he'll tell. Well, look, let's turn now to what we saw this week, which was big news for the president overseas, able to muscle through a major peace deal in the Middle East. And we saw still working to broker some kind of peace deal hosting Zelensky, at the White House and calling Putin this week as well. But meanwhile, it is day 17 of the government shutdown back here at home.

The rhetoric has not changed from either side, Jonathan, and the president hasn't really engaged in the kind of brokering we traditionally see presidents do. Can he be a dealmaker back here, too? Yes, we've seen it. We have seen it. So if the president were to turn his attention to the government shutdown and, you know, figure out what both sides wants and then just say, this is what I want to do, Of course, we have seen time and again Republicans will do whatever the president tells them to do,

even if they've held an opposing position. So, but he hasn't seen, like he wants to get involved, which makes me think he likes what's happening. Maybe he likes what's happening. Maybe given what we, the package on Russell vote, maybe this shutdown does give him the opportunity, him and Russell vote, the opportunity to slash at the federal government in ways. they couldn't do under regular order. And I don't know. It's a terrible game for the president to play

because real people, Americans, are getting hurt. David, Jonathan raises a good point. Is there incentive for the president to want to end the shutdown? Not particularly. You know, the Republicans are not the party of government. They're the party of shrinking government. And under the shutdown right now,

he's been blocked from really getting rid of what he calls democratic programs. But he is able to fund the things he likes. And so they have managed to wrangle some funds for the servicemen. They have for TSA, for ICE, those sorts of people. And so they get to fund the things they like and don't, and everybody else gets nothing. Two things are astonishing to me.

One, how everybody is blasé about it. The whole, not in the DMV in our area, but everywhere else in the country is like, eh, what do you do? And the capacity to be shocked by our politics is clearly going away. And so that's the first thing. The second thing is I'm curious to know what happens over the next three weeks because the notifications for the health care costs are

those letters are going out November 1st they really begin to kick in and so maybe then we'll see something but I would not assume that this is going to end any time in October I think when that November number comes out we'll see how the public reacts if at all you think this could break the last record for the shutdown then that was 35 days quite easily yeah Jonathan you agree with that oh I agree with that and November 1 is also my internal deadline that I think for Democrats, November 1 is the date to David's point. That's when the things that they've been warning about kick in. And so if that doesn't bring people to the table, if that doesn't get the president to say, all right, jokers, let's get into a room and hammer this

out. I don't know what will. That's when the enrollment will open, right? And, you know, the subsidies expire at the end of the year. So time, to your point, is ticking. The other thing the Republican Party is wrestling with is I'm sure you've seen the contents and the cover. of that leaked group chat among leaders from the young Republican groups that was first reported, of course, by Politico. You've seen Vice President Vance's response to that. He was dismissive of it and said, this is what kids do. He also pointed towards the violent text messages that were from Democrat Jay Jones,

who's running for Attorney General in Virginia, who apologized last night, but is still running. And today we should note that the New York chapter of the Young Republicans was suspended after some of its members were revealed to be a part of that group. David, how did you look at this story and what the chat reveals to us? Well, it's sort of a logical extension of either the alt-right or MAGA, which is the whole idea of MAGA is to be transgressive, to shock the middle class, shock the Protestant elite, not the Protestant elite, the progressive elite.

I like the Protestant elite. And when you do that and be transgressive, well, then the young people online, are going to say things like, I like Hitler. Because the norms have been taken away. And in France, the Bohemians used to call it epite les bourgeois, like shock the bourgeoisie. And so you get this rolling nihilism

that all norms are gone, and the most offensive thing you can say suddenly becomes cool. And that's what's happened when you erode norms. And you can't just do what Elise Stefani did, which is this is appalling. Like, it is the simplest thing to say, this is appalling. J.D. Vance could have said that. but he's sent so long in these circles

that he doesn't want to burn his friend. Jonathan, what do you make of it? The whole situation is deplorable. The people making those comments are deplorable. The Vice President of the United States, and what he had to say about, well, these are just kids. I'm sorry, there's a 34-year-old kid, a 24-year-old kid. No, these are not children.

These are adults. And the idea that the Vice President of the United States couldn't set a moral example in say, this is unacceptable. This is not who we are as a party. You know why he can't say it? Because this is who they are right now as a party. And you know what? We shouldn't even be talking about the vice president. We should be talking about the president. We have a president who dabbles in this language, who campaigned, not in this exact language, but in that atmosphere, in that milieu, if we're going to use French words. French words. And so,

So if the president of the United States is doing it and can do it, well, why should we be surprised that you've got 20-somethings, 30-somethings, people, there's one of them was an elected official, people who are, you know, young leaders in the Republican Party. Why are we surprised that they're engaging in this kind of conversation, even when they acknowledge, like, hey, you know, if these league will be in trouble, ha, ha, ha, what is that, 2,900 pages worth of these text messages? Come on. This is terrible. It's deplorable. It will say excellent French pronunciation by you both on that. I really do appreciate that. Before we go, I do want to ask you about another remarkable moment this week, which I'm sure you saw this video, scores of Pentagon reporters who refused to sign the new rules

that were introduced by Secretary Hegesh, turned in their badges, packed up their offices, and they walked out on mass. Just watching those scenes, David, what did you think? Well, I thought of the First Amendment. I mean, there's a reason there is a First Amendment because, and for 200 some odd years of our history, people acknowledge that the press actually plays a role and that it's a useful and necessary role and the politicians that don't like it, but they appreciate the role. And this administration clearly does not appreciate the role. Their MO is to go after anything that might restrain them.

And the press is a restraint. And the Constitution is a restraint. There are a bunch of restraints. And so when I saw those pictures, I just saw Trump being Trump. But the reporters, including, you know, all our news organizations, really, they had no choice because this criminalized journalism, the rules they were imposing. If you were digging it for a story that they didn't want you to have, they could, in theory, prosecute you.

And so, of course, they had to say no. It was the easiest call in the history of journalism. But I just thought about, you know, restraint and the lack thereof. Jonathan. This is a free press literally on parade out of the building, and it was a wonderful thing to see. And also, this is the 21st century. They don't need to be in that building. And actually, maybe it will make their jobs a little easier because, you know, oh, you're not in the Pentagon.

I'm going to meet with sources. The sources will come to you outside without having the eyes of other people looking at them. I just think, you know, our jobs as journalists aren't. isn't meant to be easy. We get big stories and we break big stories by busting our butts and working our sources and making it possible for people to come to us and tell the stories that change history.

And so what those folks did at the Pentagon, I applaud them. And quite honestly, there are others in our profession who should look at them as an example. Donathan Capehart, David Brooks. Always great to end the week with you, Bo. Thank you so much. Adieu.

Adieu. Oh, wow. For decades, renowned photographer Platon has captured portraits of some of the world's most influential figures. Now he's turning the camera in a new direction, filming his sessions as he draws out candid, revealing conversations with his subjects. We share Platon's dialogue with famed actor John Lithgow for our art. and Culture series, Candace. Everyone just like to your phone on silence, please?

I guess maybe I should do that. Wouldn't that be mortifying? Where did I put my phone? All right, ask me anything. All right, come on then. What does it mean to be a storyteller? So much of telling the story of emotions happens in the face.

happens in the face. That's why the close-up is what practically defines movie making. That's what you do as a photographer. A sudden moment of cheerfulness descending into, uh-oh, down. Boom, boom, boom. Storytelling is entertaining. It takes people out of themselves. They identify with certain characters.

They hate certain other characters. They want the story to have a beginning, middle, and end, and they want the end to leave them with something. Truth. Essential. You're venturing into what's going on right now. We're living in this very, very troubling. time when truth is devalued. We share the language of disinformation and it

throws everybody off. I feel like I'm a sort of intermediary as an actor because I'm a sort of intermediary as an actor Because I'm acting out various struggles, and very often that struggle has to do with big ideas like truthfulness and duplicity. People are drawn to drama for that reason. They are drawn to seeing the conflicts acted out that they very often feel in themselves. Good people do bad things. And bad people do good things. All of us are capable of both.

There are moments when I experience real grief in a performance where I'm enacting grief. We actors have a verb. I was ambushed. And in those moments, I myself, it catches me. Deeply communicating with a group of total strangers and creating a bond with them, that's an incredible privilege. It just makes me feel so useful in this world.

Human connection is the opposite of loneliness. And loneliness is the hardest thing to live with. Nobody wants me. Everybody experiences it at some point. And yet, one phone call with good news, like upending an hourglass, it can replenish you. Ah, I'm going to be all right. My name is John Lithgow.

And I'm a storyteller. I'll tell you my favorite Churchill quote. A woman pointed out to him that his fly button were undone and he said it's not a problem a dead bird never leaves its nest you just became Churchill I've never seen that in front of me before Be sure to watch Washington Week with the Atlantic tonight right here on PBS. Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel discussed President Trump's push for peace overseas and the punishment of political opponents at home.

And watch PBS News Weekend tomorrow for a look at how the company that helped create China's restrictive internet firewall is selling the system to other countries. And that is the NewsHour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us and have a great weekend.