PBS News Hour - Full Show - September 11, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Friday on the News Hour, Americans remember the lives lost in the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago. We look at how that day led to the longest war in U.S. history and how it transformed the nation. Iran-backed Houthi rebels capture an island at the entrance to the Red Sea, threatening one of the world's key shipping lanes for oil exports. Plus, Republicans wrap up their first-ever midterm convention. 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 Omna Navaz on the news hour tonight. Americans remember the lives lost in the September 11th attacks 25 years ago. We look at how that day led to the longest war in U.S. history and how it transformed the nation. It was just a really terrible, terrible assault on our nation. But we rose to it. We were more unified than we'd been in a long time. Iran-backed Houthi rebels capture an island at the entrance to the Red Sea, threatening one of the world's key shipping lanes for oil exports. And Republicans wrap up their first ever midterm convention.

Did it give the party the boost it needs heading into the elections? Welcome to the News Hour. Families, survivors, first responders, and dignitaries spent much of this day marking the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks with somber and poignant ceremonies. That included major gatherings in New York, a memorial attended by President Trump at the Pentagon, and a service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The September Alemuth attacks killed 2,97 people and sent the country on a course that would define the next quarter century. On behalf of Atei, Kuya, and Didi, thank you for being our Garnian angel. We love and miss you.

Where the Twin Towers once touched the sky, this morning names of the dead echoed in memorial. Brandon J. Buchanan. Greg J. Bach. Dennis Buckley. Each one, a testament to a life cut short 25 years ago. These were full three-dimensional people, and if they were here today, I think they would prefer that we remember them for how they lived versus how they died. Family members read out each name over roughly four hours, accompanied by music, moments of silence and bell ringing.

To mark when the four planes crashed and two towers fell that day. Twenty-five years ago, New York was the first place struck in the attacks, shocking the city and the nation. American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8.46 AM. A second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, followed at 903. Roughly 30 minutes later, another plane, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, creating a fireball. And at 1003, United Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers fought back against the hijackers. By the end of the hour, the Twin Towers had collapsed, and the country was forever changed.

Those paying tribute at Ground Zero today included every living former president and first lady, Vice President J.D. Vance, and New York City Mayor Zulran Mamdani. The moment was first marked at the Pentagon at dawn when a flag was unfurled. Barbara K. Olson. Hours later, President Trump spoke at a memorial service for the 184 men and women who died in that attack, praising the sacrifice of the U.S. military. In 25 years, a generation has passed since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001. Yet time is not dimmed the honor of that day when our country came face to face with true evil.

Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's National Security Advisor on September 11th, spoke as well. But I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured. And in Shanksville, bells and speeches honored the 40 lives lost on United Airlines Flight 93. One notable contrast to ceremonies of the past, more explicit political remarks in some cases, including President Trump, who tied support for the Iran war, to the memory of 9-11. We will never, ever forget. That's why we fight today. We don't have a choice.

There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win. And in Manhattan, the relatives of two victims accused the government of withholding information about the role Saudi Arabia played in the attacks and called for accountability. For 25 years, administration, after administration, including...

leaders in front of us here today chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9-11 families. Though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement in 9-11. Many of those gathered urged a return to the national sense of unity that followed the attacks. The camaraderie you had after 9-11 was amazing. And I don't know, the young people have not experienced.

They've only experienced the bitter polarization. on. Today, more than a quarter of all living Americans, roughly 100 million people were not yet born on September 11, 2001. Prisonia Argon, a recovery worker at Ground Zero, that made the act of remembering this year more important than ever. And it's 25 years later and we have a bunch of people that still don't understand. And my mission is to help them understand that they inherited this world and what's normal

for them is abnormal for us. is a hard day. I don't know why it's harder than any other year. I just feel people are forgetting, and they can't, they shouldn't. And today, the CIA released its largest ever batch of declassified presidential intelligence briefs on the threat from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before 9-11. Among the 71 documents is a September 1998 brief warning that Osama bin Laden's preferred option is to strike the U.S. on its own soil in Washington. adding that al-Qaeda may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city. The documents show both the Clinton and Bush administrations received repeated warnings,

but experts say they do not fundamentally change what was known. The threat was clear, while the intelligence lacked the timing and specifics needed to identify the coming attack. In the day's other headlines, Houthi rebels in Yemen consolidated lightning gains across the country's western coast. The group recently resumed fighting with the Saudi-backed government, saying at least 82 people have been killed or wounded in recent Saudi-led attacks. The Houthis have extended their hold on a crucial choke point at the southern reaches of the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandab Strait. Ali Rogan has our update. In one of the most watched waterways in the world today, Yemen's Houthi fighters captured the strategic island of Mianun. It's volcanic, nearly empty, and for the first time in years, Houthi controlled.

They didn't even have to fight for it. Overnight, Saudi-backed Yemeni-government forces slipped away. Now we place a chain from there to there. A chain that could cripple global trade. It started here in Mokha yesterday. The Red Sea port where Saudi-backed forces collapsed in a single day. Today, Houthis control it for the first time in a decade. Saudi Arabia hit back, striking its airport.

But Saudi Arabia also wanted American help. A person familiar tells PBS NewsHour, the kingdom formally requested U.S. airstrikes. The U.S. consistently helps Riyadh militarily, but has not yet agreed to launch airstrikes. From Moka, Houthi fighters pushed south and reached Mian today. Together, Moka and Mion give the Houthi something they've never fully controlled, both shores of the Baba Mandeb Strait that carries.

is roughly a tenth of the world's trade. It matters even more now with Iran and the U.S. battling over the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis say they're only blocking Saudi ships. The Yemeni armed forces affirm that maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels. We will continue and meet escalation with escalation until the aggression stops and the blockade on our dear people is lifted. But tonight Saudi Arabia's own lifeline may already be burning.

Satellite data from Saudi Arabia shows black smoke rising near the east-west pipeline, Riyadh's only route to move oil away from the Strait of Hormuz. The kingdom said it shut it down as a precautionary measure following the attack. A regional official told the news hour it was not the Houthis, but an Iran-backed Shia militia in Iraq that launched the attack. Tonight, even away from the coast, the signs of escalation keep coming. Houthi media circulated this footage, which they say shows the wreckage of a Saudi drone shot down as tensions continue to escalate. Two choke points, choking not just trade and oil flows, but the chance at a swift resolution to this wider war. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Ali Rogan.

Also today, the latest reading on U.S. inflation is fueling speculation that the Fed will raise interest rates when it meets next week. The Labor Department said this morning that consumer prices roving. 3.4% in August when compared to last year. That's the same as a month earlier. And energy prices remain elevated, with fighting in the Middle East showing no signs of easing. In fact, diesel prices hit record highs above $6 a gallon today. And that has a knock-on effect, since it pushes up the costs of shipping for groceries and other goods. Health officials today declared an end to this year's cyclospora outbreak, which was the largest in U.S. history. The FDA expressed confidence that the recalled iceberg lettuce related to this particular outbreak is now off the market.

Federal data shows that nearly 13,000 people across 21 states fell ill with the intestinal parasite this summer. Most were in Michigan, where two deaths were tied to the disease. The FDA says it will continue its investigation into the outbreak's origins and how infections became so widespread. In the UK, lawmakers rejected a proposal to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales. The eyes to the right, 270, the nose to the left, 286. Today's vote in the House of Commons effectively ends a two-year debate in Parliament

that had inflamed passions among lawmakers and the public. The bill would have allowed patients with fewer than six months to live to choose to end their lives with medical assistance, provided they had the approval of doctors and an expert panel. Polls suggest solid public support for the practice, but opponents have cited concerns about coercion and a lack of safeguards. A senior British defense official says more than half a million Russian troops have been killed since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

The assessment from the chief of the UK's defense staff comes as Russia's advance has slowed significantly this year. Ukrainian casualties were not mentioned, and neither side gives regular updates on losses. In the meantime, Ukraine continues to strike Russia, with drones hitting this warehouse in the southwestern city of Saratov today. While in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, firefighters battled flames after Russian drones hit gas stations and residential buildings. One woman who lost her apartment in the strikes spoke of her exhaustion, even as air raid sounded.

I'm so tired of this that I don't know what to say. I don't see anything positive. Things are only getting worse and worse. Where do I find the strength? Also today, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized what he called the, quote, unseemly actions by Western leaders on the global stage. In remarks ahead of this weekend's Brick Summit in New Delhi, he cited attacks on logistical facilities, the seizing of maritime vessels and sanctions,

among others. A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for stronger AI regulations after two stark warnings this week about the dangers of the technology. Industry experts are still pouring over the threats raised by Anthropic in a lengthy report yesterday. That includes attempts by bad actors to use its AI models to develop biological weapons and even efforts by Iran to target U.S. warships in the Middle East. That comes after outgoing anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon sparked global concerns by posting online that AI could, quote, kill us all by the end of the decade.

An Indiana state senator has finally won his primary race four months after votes were cast and even after President Trump worked to defeat him. Spencer Deary was one of seven Republican lawmakers targeted by the president for refusing to redraw the state's congressional map to help the GOP pick up two-house seats. Five of those senators lost their primary bids after Mr. Trump backed their opponents.

But the state Supreme Court certified yesterday that Deary won his primary by three votes advancing him to the general election in November. The teenage boy is safely back with his family after surviving for days on top of a cap-sized boat in Alaska's Bering Sea. A fishing boat working with the Coast Guard spotted the 15-year-old kneeling on his overturned boat on Monday before helping him on board. The Coast Guard said he had symptoms of hypothermia from the frigid waters. The teenager was the sole survivor on board. His older brother and cousin drowned sometime after the boat flipped over, and their bodies were later recovered. On Wall Street today, stocks regained some of their losses from earlier in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 500 points. NASDAQ rose nearly 1%. The S&P 500 also closed out the week with a solid gain. Still to come. On the News Hour, former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton reflects on the tragedy of 9-11. We report from Afghanistan 25 years after the start of the U.S. War on Terror. And David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart provide their analysis of the week's news. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News.

With November's midterms closing in, Republicans wrapped an unprecedented two-day convention in Dallas aimed at firing up the party's base. President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance headlined an event that also produced some striking and unexpected moments. Our Liz Landers spoke with attendees and has this report. On the final night of the Republican convention... You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell, you know that. The commander-in-chief delivered marching orders to his royal Maga Warriors. So, please raise your right hand.

I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. Administering a pledge for the crowd to vote in November. I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell. like they do. As convention attendees leave Dallas and return to their home districts, polling suggests the party has work to do to win over voters with 53 days until the midterm elections. That has some Republicans like 32-year-old Sarah Tabor concerned. Hey, I'm a little bit worried.

I'm not going to lie, but I do think that there's a lot of fake news. So I think that we have the majority and I think that good will prevail in the end. While President Trump took center stage of the unprecedented Republican midterm convention, even some attendees are torn about how big his profile should be in the final weeks of the campaign. I love my president, but sometimes, sometimes I just need to hear less of him and more, I just, you know, I want to see action. Others say Trump is a big motivator for the base. It's always better to be more Trump. He gets people out. I mean, and I think he's done a really good thing to make it.

It's a referendum on him. Inside the convention, other GOP speakers focus their attention on Democrats, hoping to instead turn the election into a referendum on socialism and make New York Mayor Zeran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul Al-Sayed the poster children for the Democratic Party. Leading to this moment as Senator Ted Cruz addressed the crowd. When Mondami says he wants to seize the... the means of production. He means it. When Abdul al-Said says he has a, quote, obligation to comply

with Sharia law, he means it. While Cruz did not acknowledge the shouted comments, El-Said responded later on CNN. Democracy is supposed to be the process by which we solve our problems peacefully. We can learn to disagree agreeably. The Democrats are the party of hatred. Vice President J.D. Vance made the case to stay the course. Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there. With Trump term limited and Vance delivering the keynote address,

attention inevitably turned to 2028. We need to start setting up who it's going to be coming after next and have a succession plan ready to go. And who do you hope is that succession plan? Who do you want to see as the Republican nominee in 2028? I really like micro-rubio. I think he's great. I like Senator Holly.

I think he's great. J.D. Vance, of course, I think is great as well. So there's a lot of good options, I think. For his part, the Vice President downplayed any speculation about his future. We got to take care of business this November. Then we'll worry about what comes next. So talk about 2028 remains just talk for now. As the convention ended with the traditional balloon drop,

President Donald Trump stood alone on. stage, still the center of the Republican Party. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Liz Landers in Dallas, Texas. 25 years ago, Hillary Clinton was the junior senator for the state of New York. This week, she's reflecting on what's been lost and what she's learned in the generation since. In her new essay for the Atlantic entitled What the Aftermath of 9-11 taught me, the former Secretary of State looks back at how leaders handled public health, national security,

and transparency after the attacks. Writing in part, quote, there are many important lessons worth learning from 9-11. This is one of them. Government should be about producing results for people. Our leaders need to level with people, tell them the truth, and follow through with actual results that make a difference in their lives. Secretary Clinton joins me now. Secretary, welcome back to the News Hour. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me, Amna. I do want to dig more deeply into this piece that you wrote for the Atlantic. but on this day, I want to begin with your own memories of that day, because you were in D.C. when the attacks unfolded. You made it back to New York very quickly the next day on a special FEMA flight. What do you remember about that moment in history? What stays with you all these years later? Well, I have so many memories, but let me just highlight two of them. Obviously, on the day of the attack, I was in Washington on my way to my Senate office.

I was going to attend a hearing that featured Laura Bush testifying about the Bush administration's proposals for education. And so when the first plane hit, we were incredulous. We couldn't understand how a plane could have literally run into an incredibly tall building in the middle of New York City. and began to reach out for information. And then, of course, when the second plane hit, it became abundantly clear to everyone that this was not an accident. And we spent the day trying to gather as much information as possible, trying to understand what the continuing threats were,

because, as you remember, there was a third plane that went down, you know, in the fields of Pennsylvania, after a plane had hit the Pentagon, but it was thought that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was heading toward the capital itself. So there was a lot of confusion and scrambling. I watched every bit of footage that I could about what was actually happening in the city

that I was then honored to represent talking to people in all levels of government. And then the next day when Senator Schumer and I were, I think, the only civilian plane in the sky on the way from Washington to New York. We landed at LaGuardia, we boarded a helicopter, we asked the helicopter to fly us over ground zero. And it is so indelibly just in my mind what I saw, because it was like looking at Dante's Inferno, looking at the twisted metal, looking at the burning fires, looking at the firefighters,

the construction workers, others frantically continuing to try to carefully dig through all of that wreckage with the hope that maybe somebody was still alive. And then when we landed, we met up with then Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani and went toward the site itself on the ground. And it was like seeing a curtain of darkness because of all of the particulates and the debris that was in the air. And you could smell it and you could taste it. And I just, you know, left that experience, you know, not only incredibly moved and worried and fearful and angry and every other emotion you can imagine, but I left that first day worrying about the air because I knew how it tasted and smelled and felt to me. So that became an issue that I was particularly focused on in

the days and weeks to come. And you write in this essay about knowing about those toxins in the air. As early as August of 2003, you note there was an EPA Inspector General report that found White House officials had instructed the agency to reassure New Yorkers that the air was safe, despite the presence of some deadly toxins. You said at a press conference afterwards, someone at the White House had to call someone. Someone at the White House had to call or send an email and tell these. EPA, don't tell the truth. You said, I want to know who that is. Did you ever find that out?

Will we ever find that out? I did not, and I don't know if we will. I write that it was almost the most angriest moment in my public life that I had because for two years, we had been seeking answers. We had been pushing our federal government to give us information. And you reference the desire on the part of our government to get Wall Street open, to get businesses up and going. And I totally understand that. I mean, obviously, we were devastated economically as well as, you know, physically and loss of life. But I think there could have and should have been better ways to send the messages so that people would have been alerted that, you know, it is not safe, wear a mask. if you have asthma, if you have any respiratory problems at all, probably stay away.

We should have had a concerted effort by the city, state, and federal government to clean all of the buildings far better than they were and on a repeating basis because the searching on the pile was continuing and there was a lot of construction equipment to move away huge steel beams and that would release more debris and toxins into the air. So one of the lessons I hope we have learned, but perhaps need to be reminded of, is number one level with people, try to find ways to meet more than one goal at a time, keep people safe, keep their, you know, their lungs safe, but also try to let those people who are properly attired, who can, you know, manage to go back to work to do that on a staggered basis.

I should mention Secretary Clinton, we had former Governor George Pataki on the show last night. He was speaking with my colleague Jeff Bennett, and he was talking about his 9-11-related diagnosis of a restrictive airway disease. He was diagnosed just in the last five years. You were down there with him. I have to ask, have you had any similar symptoms, or are you worried you could develop them? Well, I heard about Governor Pataki, and I obviously am very concerned for him, but I think he, is kind of like the canary and the mine in a sense that we know more and more people will be diagnosed. I have not been, and I know many people who have. People who 10, 15, 20 years later, like the governor, are being told that probably this can be related in some way to your exposure

on 9-11 and the weeks and months to follow. So we're not through this. And my hope is that, because of the information that is coming out, the 170,000 pages of additional information that advocates from a group called Health Watch were able to get from the city government now, that we take a hard look at what more needs to be done to reach out to people who might have problems in the future to screen them and help provide the health care that they need right now. because I'm afraid that we're going to hear more stories like Governor Patakis. I'd like to ask you about President Trump and what we heard from him and his remarks at the Pentagon to commemorate the 25th anniversary of these attacks.

He made the link to the war in Iran today. He said, we're saluting those who served in the war in terror, and then he went on to say Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. I wonder what you make of that linkage in the way the president made it. Well, I think he's looking for any explanation he can provide as to why he launched this war in Iran without fully understanding, you know, some of the consequences like the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the explosion and oil and gas prices that were precipitated because the strait was closed and tankers are not getting through. Look, Iran has sponsored terrorism for many years, and we have seen the results, not just in the Middle East, but around the world of attacks that Iran has either directly or indirectly supported. So there is always ground to criticize and condemn Iran for their involvement in terrorism and the proxies that they support around the. the world who do their bidding. But I don't see the connection between the current action in Iran

and what happened on 9-11. Before I let you go, I want to ask, is if the nation is reflecting on this moment in history, for all the horror and the chaos of that day, there was this moment of unity we saw coming out of the attacks. And I wonder what you think would happen in this nation today, divided as we are, if there was a similar style attack, how would our leaders respond? How would our country respond? Well, I'm confident the American people would respond as we always do. We would be reaching out to help. There would be people running toward danger to help those who are at risk. What I would hope is that if it were to happen right now, that our current government would act out of a sense of generosity and inclusivity and

reaching out to every American, not just the ones who support them, but every one of us would be, you know, part of the America that would be, they would be concerned about. So I hope nothing like that happens ever again in our country. It was such a painful, terrible experience for the entire nation and particularly for those who lost loved ones. It was just a really terrible, terrible assault on our nation. But we rose to it. We were more. We were more more unified than we've been in a long time. So we need to have a government that's as good in responding to disaster as the American people ourselves are.

That is former Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton joining us tonight. Secretary Clinton, thank you for your time. It's a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you. Good to speak with you. Already scarred by decades of war, Afghanistan became the center of America's response to 9-11, after the Taliban harbored the men who planned the attacks. Special correspondent Laila Malana Allen and videographer Eric O'Connor

hear from three men who fought that war and still carry it with them. After all that fighting, everything we lost, our friends, we lost everything we did for this country, and that is a trauma for the rest of our life. Everything was just for nothing. Muhammad, whose name we've changed to protect him, grew up amid America's Forever War in Afghanistan.

He believed in the problem. of a new Afghanistan and became a soldier to fight for it. As a member of the Afghan Special Forces, he was trained by U.S. Marines and fought alongside the Green Berets on secret raid missions, pursuing high-level Taliban and ISIS targets from 2019 to 2021. We had a very good friendship. We had very good instructors. And we weren't thinking that we're Afghan or their U.S. forces.

We were like the same people, the same blood, the same idea that we were fighting for humanity. But in 2021, they were told to, surrender their weapons and go home. The Taliban were now in charge. Suddenly he became the high-level target for his work with U.S. forces. It soon became clear the U.S. military couldn't or wouldn't get him out. America had promised that the people fighting with us will stand up for them. I thought, what did we do wrong? That they would abandon these people that they fought alongside? Muhammad is at such high risk that even though we're in the same city, we

can't visit him in case we're followed. He tells me he's being hunted. Every few days he hears news of the execution or arrest of former brothers in arms. He says no matter how strong they are, he knows every human being eventually breaks under torture and could reveal what they know. So last month, your friend was executed by the Taliban who was a former soldier. Yes. You're living in hiding, you know people are searching for you. What is your daily life like? Our life now is just way to When will they find you? When will be your last day in this world? He hasn't seen a family member or friend in five years. He can't put them in danger. The only people he does see are a secret network of former soldiers who help men like him move between safe houses.

So you're moving every couple of weeks? Yes. What's it like to be constantly on the run? You cannot call that a life. It's really hard. Like you're a criminal or something. Like everyone is following you. In a quiet corner of Kabul, behind high stone walls marked by the centuries, stands a garden of memories. The Cabregora, the 19th century name for foreigner, holds the names and remains of foreign fighters killed here over centuries of war. Americans, British, Canadians, Russians, French, Germans, Poles, even Chinese. A graveyard for the human beings who lost their lives in the country famously called the graveyard of Emmer.

The military Brian Rippey is not there. He made it home after four tours in Afghanistan, serving with the elite 75th Ranger Regiment from 2009 to 2012. Many of his comrades did not. One of a generation of volunteers driven to serve by 9-11, Brian says he only really came to understand what the war was for once he was already there fighting it. 9-11 really changed the discourse about what it meant to say. serve and how important it was. When I started to deploy to Afghanistan, our mission had really shifted focus from being finding al-Qaeda and the folks that had done 9-11 and planted and executed it to being one

where we were fighting the Taliban. What is the tie-in between these seemingly farmers and relatively poor people that were going and doing these missions to go after? What is their connection to 9-11? While on a night mission on his first tour, an apparent success went horribly wrong when a ranger stepped on an improvised explosive device the Taliban had placed on a bridge. Suddenly there's a giant explosion and then everything is covered in dust. And so you're running through a dust storm essentially.

And me as the medic, I'm not really sure what I'm running towards. What sticks with me to this day is just the chaos of it all, combat-tested folks, folks, you know, combat leaders looking very frazzled, seeming very desperate and a little panicked. That's just not something I had seen to that point in my career. Saving many others, Brian only discovered later that the man who stepped on the IED was his closest friend. I lost a really, really good friend of mine. My oldest son's middle name is Roberto, after Roberto Sanchez, who died that day.

The hardest part was getting back to our tent and seeing his empty bunk. It's like losing a brother. As the years go by, I have since gone to college, started my career, gotten married, had a couple of kids. I always wonder what he would have gone on to do, you know, would our kids have played together? That same year, Brian pulled a pilot near death from the wreckage of a helicopter crash that killed four. other crew members. The privilege of saving a life is one he won't forget. Think about that guy a lot because I'm like, hey, that really to me is the culmination of all that training and all the risk that you assume to be on these missions all the time.

It's just it's the opportunity to save one life and to feel like you saved it. Brian was awarded Special Operations Medic of the Year for his valour in 2009 for both those operations. To this day, he struggles with the idea that he gained so much from his service personally, while others suffered incalculable loss. I made it out of the war and kind of turned that into a life for myself. A lot of folks I know didn't. And countless others, you know, Afghan folks, multi-generational conflict for the Afghans. Every inch of this vast country bears the most. memories and scars of that conflict.

During the war, this road was one of the most dangerous in the country. It was a critical supply route for international forces, making it a frequent target to improvised explosive devices. And these high mountain passes gave the Taliban natural hiding places from which to launch ambushes. Salaam al-a-a-a-a-a-a-sala. Today, Majajahir Farahi sits in an air-conditioned office in Kabul as a deputy minister in the Ministry of Information and Culture. But he remembers those days, hidden in the high mountains waiting to attack.

Of course in the beginning, fighting the Americans was tough. But slowly with time, the Mujahideen used diverse tactics against them. They used things that could be made at home and inside the country, like landmines or other weapons they made themselves. Suicide attacks proved effective. As a Taliban Mujahid, he fought the United States in Afghanistan for 20 long years. Yes, many of our friends were martyred and injured, some in front of our eyes. I myself was injured.

Luckily, the enemy wasn't able to catch me. To him, their victory and resulting control of the country is the inevitable outcome of their decades of commitment to jihad. When the American started the war and Bush announced the occupation of Afghanistan, it was the worst day. But after 20 years of fighting to remove the occupiers, we entered the cities and the whole whole country was freed. This was medicine and a resolution for that 20 years of fighting and exhaustion. He wants the United States to accept the outcome it chose, lift sanctions, and

agree to full diplomatic and trade relations with Taliban-run Afghanistan. All of this was made clear in the agreement in Doha that there would be no more meddling into Afghanistan's internal issues and no economic restrictions. When America doesn't hold to their side of the deal like this, we feel they are taking revenge on Afghanistan for the past. It's a war that left Mohammed and millions of other Afghans, now deprived of their personal safety and their rights, wondering what happened to the safer Afghanistan and safer world, America promised, and whether it might have been better if they'd never come at all. Are you proud of the work who did alongside America? Yeah, definitely. But now these are the same people, the same leaders back in power.

So why did you come to Afghanistan and fight for 20 years and spend billions of dollars and lose thousands of your best people? When Brian and his buddies think about the risks they took and the sacrifices they made, Brian says he's consumed by emptiness. 9-11 led to this decades-long war in Afghanistan. I don't think that the blood and treasure that we spent in Afghanistan for several decades has changed the security of America for the better in any measurable way. A lot of folks my age that served in the war look at Afghanistan now and they think, okay the Taliban's in control there, which was like the very thing a lot of us were willing to die to prevent.

It truly feels like we went there and spent years of our lives fighting for the very thing something that became completely inconsequential. A country forever changed, but somehow right back where it started, with only blood, betrayal and bitterness to show for it. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Leila Malana Allen in Kabul, Afghanistan. For more on America 25 years after the 9-11 attacks and on the GOP midterm convention, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and K. That's the Atlantics, David Brooks and Jonathan K. Part of MS now.

It's good to see you both. I want to put two things together this week and get your take on it. We saw this week Republicans holding their midterm convention in Texas essentially built around President Trump who asked people to take a pledge to him while on stage and promised $5,000 for every adult if Republicans win the midterms. This week also marks one year since Charlie Kirk's assassination. This is someone who is sort of a bridge to the young conservative movement hailed a movement hailed as the future of the Republican Party, a party now somewhat fractured on foreign policy and economic pressures, but really united around the president. David, I want to ask you,

if you put those two things together, what does it tell you about the identity of the party today? Yeah, I thought the most important and frankly impressive speech, surprisingly for me, was Robert F. Kennedy's junior speech. He really tried to describe why so many working class voters who voted for his uncle and his dad in the 60s, then became Reagan Democrats in the 80s, and then became Trump Republicans in 2016. And I certainly didn't agree with everything in that speech, but it was a very persuasive into my Republican friends

a very compelling story. And that is the foundational strength of the modern Republican Party, that working class shift. Now, as for the contemporary party, and Kennedy explicitly thanked, why am I blanking on turning voice USA guy? Charlie Kirk, sorry. Brain freeze.

For brokering of the deal between Trump and him. And I would say we're seeing in the Republican Party first on the influencer side a crack up. And so you got Candace going, go over to here, Tucker Carlson go over to here, Ben Shapiro, trying to play William F. Buckley and police the movement and failing, by the way, though I admire him for trying. And so on that level, there's just like, and that's like show business. Among the Trump supporters, I know, I would say there's exorkewarm. disappointment, some sense of betrayal, but they're not turning Democrats, but they are,

they're flatter, they're emotionally flatter. And then I think the long-term thing is Donald Trump has, with the exception of tariffs and immigration, he's undercut the intellectual consistency of the party, because he's all over the place on everything, including his $5,000, which is like super Keynesian pump priming at a time of inflation, which is like the worst that you want to do. So it's just intellectually incoherent. So that's a little complicated to say that the Republican still has a good story to tell.

They're cracking up on the ideological level and then they're sort of a drift intellectually. Jonathan, how do you look at this? And also the idea that this is someone, the president, who can boost the turnout, right? He can boost the base. He's starting to get more involved deploying some of his significant PAC funds.

Should Democrats be worried about that as you approach mid-terms? Okay, where to begin? Okay. I'll start with the money first. Yes, Democrats should be worried when there's a tsunami of cash that's coming in the last two months and ad buys are popping up all over the place. But I will tell you, Democrats have also been wide-eyed about their prospects. Even though the momentum seems to be going their way, even though they're incredible candidates in all of these races around the country, they have always known, particularly on the Senate side, that the map is really tough.

And so the fact that the president's actually going to spend his money. in these races, you know, good on him. But I think it's going to be tough for Democrats to match the money. But I would also say to Democrats and to others that money isn't everything. We have seen that in races around the country. Angie Nixon had, what, less than a million dollars? And Mr. Vindman had multiple millions, and she beat him by double digits in that primary race. So money isn't everything.

candidate quality can count for something, but money is something that is going to be hard to surmount. And then when it comes to the Republican Party, look, if you're holding a midterm convention and it's meant to boost turnout and meant to boost candidates around the country and the president demands that he be center stage on both nights and pledge allegiance to him,

great that Secretary Kennedy gave this great speech, but it would have been better if it had been coming from the president. But that was never going to happen. And so this ideological drift that's happening within the Republican Party, I look forward to one day the Republicans going back to where they were under W, where they were under Reagan, because at least then there was consistency. We knew what they stood for. We knew what the battle lines were.

And you could talk and compromise, but you can. And one last point on this, to your point about your friends, it's sort of emotionally flat, I've been hearing that from folks who live in some of these states where there used to be Trump signs everywhere. One person in Pennsylvania, another in Virginia, and I can't remember the other state, but now these Trump signs are nowhere to be seen.

And I think that speaks to a level of disappointment, maybe betrayal that folks among Trump's faith. or feeling. I do, while I have you both, want to spend a little time reflecting on this day, I know you both have been thinking deeply on it as well, but this moment as we are marking 25 years since those September 11th attacks. David, how do you look back on your memories of that day and how we as a nation are different today than we were on September 10th, 2001?

Yeah, well, I was in the air when it all happened. I was flying to Sydney, Australia. And when we landed, the pilot said, we haven't told you something, but this is not a joke, this really happened. And they told us what had happened. And they said, when you get off the jetway, there will be Qantas people with cell phones.

They handed us phones. And they did everything they can to make us feel right. And what I mostly remember on that day is the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel. My Australian taxi driver was weeping. And that was a sign of the world. It's a sign of why you need allies, why you need friends. because that Australian guy was like one of us on that day.

And there were people like that all around the world. And when I look back 25 years hence, to me that was the first day of the 21st century. And I mean that that the al-Qaeda did this thing. They sent the gyroscope oscillating, and then we overreacted in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then Putin is overreacting in Ukraine. And then October 7th happens. And then Israel responds. So what we've just seen is like this gyroscope spinning wildly out of control.

And it's like before World War I, I don't want to make that comparison too tightly, but it's like things are spinning out of control. The world feels ever more dangerous. Jonathan, there was a world before and there's a world after. How do you reflect on that? Well, on September 11th, 25 years ago, today it was primary day in New York City. And I'd taken my first detour away from journalism and was working on Mike Bloomberg's first campaign for mayor. And I left home.

and I remember walking to the voting station, and I looked up at the sky, and it was, and remains the most beautiful day I've ever seen. The sky was so blue. In my book I wrote, it was like New York City was domed by a sapphire. And then we all know what happened next. It was a devastating day, absolutely devastating day, for the people on those planes.

for the people who passed away, their families, for the city, for the nation, for the world. The fact that the world came together, the Article 5 has only been invoked once, and that was for us, because we had been attacked. We are a long way away from that world. I did an event last night at the Paley Center, and it wasn't until, like, the day before I realized,

wait I'm flying back on September 11th and a chill went through me getting on a plane on September 11th I got to the airport this morning and I got there just in time for them to be close up on the TSA line because they shut it down and I heard someone say they're shutting it down because they're going to do a moment of silence I got there about 830 honor guard came in was silent and I just my eyes just welled up with tears just remembering 25 years ago, those the people, their families, where we are now, it is hard. It's really hard to think back what we were like on September 10th, what we were like on September 11th at 8.30 a.m. in 2001 and where we are now. I pray we can maybe even get halfway back to that time.

I don't know. We are a long way from where we were, but hope springs eternal. And I thank you both for always being here to help us see some of that hope. David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart. Thank you so much. This weekend, we'll have more remembrances of 9-11, beginning tonight with Washington Week with the Atlantic. Later on, right here on PBS, Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel, remember that day, and examine the fallout in the year since. On Compass Points this weekend, Nick Schifrin sits down with former White House Situation Room officials who were tasked with quickly distilling fact from fiction amid the chaos of the attacks.

Here's a preview of that conversation. The Pentagon is hit next. And this is another example of information not necessarily being official. So how do you first hear the Pentagon has been hit? Just before the Pentagon was hit, I was on the phone with the Deputy Director of Operations of the National Military Command Center. love our acronyms, it's the NM, the DDO of the NMC. It's a one-star general. I think it was an Army General that day. And we were talking some updates about aircraft and things. And while that's going on, we had a White House communicator that was coming into the White House to help augment

our staff and was driving along a road called 395 between Pentagon, City and the Pentagon, and was on the phone with our communicator, Scott Hire, Navy communicator, and told Scott, hey, there's an aircraft over Crystal City right now. And Scott yelled that to me from the back of the situation room. And I said, everything's grounded. And he said, no, no. He's saying there's an aircraft over. And then he said, oh, my God, the Pentagon's just been hit.

And so I relayed that to the DDO, to the Battle Watch captain, my counterpart essentially, in the Pentagon, yes. And I said, I think you just got hit by a plane. And he said, that's impossible. I would know. And about a second later, I could hear claxons or a long. arms go off on the back. He dropped an expletive and said, I've got to go, and we dropped the call, at which point we knew the Pentagon had been hit. You can watch both Compass Points and Horizons

on our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts and, of course, on your local PBS station. And that's the News Hour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Navaz. On behalf of the entire News Hour team, thank you for joining us and have a good weekend.