geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz on the "newshour" tonight, former president donald trump's record win at the iowa caucuses solidifies his hold on the gop. a look at the tough road ahead

for his republican challengers. geoff: israeli leaders increasingly disagree in public over the best path forward, as the war drags on for more than 100 days and the international community works to get more aid into gaza. >> our bodies are ill, my children are ill due to lack of food. this is not enough. amna: and, a new law capping the price of insulin brings relief for some people with diabetes. why the cost remains high for millions of others. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour," including kathy and paul anderson.

and camilla and george smith. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor. life well planned. >> a proud supporter of public television on a voyage. the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure and british style. all with white star service. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged opportunities. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support

of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the "newshour." the focus of the republican presidential race now moves to new hampshire after former president donald trump's record-setting win in last night's iowa caucuses. amna: trump dominated his rivals by 30 points, winning all but one of iowa's 99 counties. florida governor ron desantis came in second place with 21% of

the vote, followed closely by former south carolina governor nikki haley. i'm joined by republican strategist kevin madden, who advised mitt romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. kevin, welcome back to the program. i want to get your take on some consternation around how early the call came for former president trump by the associated press last night. it came a half-hour after the caucuses first began. the associated press put out an explanation today. they declared trump the winner based on analysis of early returns as well as their ap vote cast, which is a survey of voters that plan to caucus. both showed trump with an insurmountable lead. they make these calls when the math lines up. they've been doing it for 170 years. his the criticism warranted? kevin: you are right. every campaign we have worked on, we have seen these early calls. we also have to be very cognizant of the fact there's a

very high sense of distrust among a lot of republican voters and campaigns, and that is driving that level of consternation. so, we all know the ap has rigorous standards and protocols with how they announce this, but i think the media does have to have a little bit of self reflection about whether or not there is a great utility in releasing the calls so early when you still have people voting, especially in the age of the smartphone where everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket inside these caucuses and able to see that information while still voting. amna: let's take a look at the results and how mr. trump did so well. he dominated pretty much every demographic group. in entrance polls, iowans were asked what candidate qualities were important to them. for people who said they wanted someone who fights for people like me, 82% of those folks broke for mr. trump, 10% for ron desantis, and 4% for nikki haley. why do these numbers stand out

to you? kevin: one of the things we are seeing right now is the emerging world of republican voters. one of the first things they are looking at right now is can somebody win in november? what's really emerging about the electability argument is the idea that somebody is out there fighting for them. so, that is a very, very potent argument that many republican primary voters are seeing right now. it is why this air of inevitability is coasting around trump right now. one of the things that is very interesting is if you look at general elections, many close general elections live or die on that question. which candidate understands or understands -- reflect the principles of people like me? for a lot of the folks watching this from the biden campaign, they see that number as very high with republican voters. i think it creates a very difficult general election matchup for them. amna: let me ask you about what

has become the fight for second place. mr. desantis banked it all on iowa. he finished well behind trump, but he headed right to south carolina to haley's home state. this is part of what he had to say. >> she was governor here for six years. can you name major achievements under her tenure? tell me if there are. amna: haley, meanwhile, released a new ad today. she was also saying she would not participate in the next debate unless mr. trump took part. abc has now canceled the debate. she has present herself as the alternative to trump and president biden. here's a clip. >> both are consumed by chaos, negativity and grievances of the past. the better choice for a better america, nikki haley. amna: those are very different messages. they are punching in very different directions. how will those arguments played out? kevin: disinterest -- desantis'

argument is a very defensive argument. he is almost skipping a number of other big primary states. not playing on the stage in new hampshire while everyone else in the attention of the political media and other candidates are in new hampshire. that creates a void for their campaign. haley has had a prepackaged strategy which is no matter what, she will say this is a two-person race between me and donald trump. she is sticking to that strategy right now. that is where i think we will see these messages go from both of these campaigns. one other thing i would note is that haley believes the best way to make the case to a lot of republican voters is the showed that she would be the best candidate to take on joe biden in a general election. that is a key component for her message with not only voters in new hampshire but these other primary states. march 5 and march 19 where a big chunk of delegates will be.

amna: the gop field has tightened even further even since last night. vivek ramaswamy has ended his campaign, so has ada hutchinson, but there's no consolidation around a single trump alternative. the national review wrote the party has better alternatives, but if the iowa results are any indication, perhaps not for very long. is that window to consolidate around someone else closed? kevin: i think it is still open but everyone is running out of time. we are talking about 1% of the delegates that are at stake were waged last night. but, there is a very real sense of inevitability here. if you look at the picture of what gop base voters were saying in iowa, as a precursor for what we will see for gop voters elsewhere, it paints a compelling argument that the party and many of its base voters are coming to terms with the idea that trump will be

there nominee. inevitability for nikki haley and ron desantis, that is a tough message to fight against. they have their work cut out for them. amna: kevin madden, good to talk to you. thank you so much. geoff: while the first contest of the presidential campaign is over, the race for the gop nomination and the delegates who will vote at the republican national convention this summer is only beginning. domenico montanaro of npr is here to walk us through the long road ahead. it is good to see you. we know that 40 republican delegates were up for grabs last night and they were allocated proportionately. how did donald trump's committed victory position him? domenico: i would say it is maybe not a long road after all. i think this thing has been moved up significantly because the trump campaign, which is more sophisticated this time, has been able to make a lot of efforts to move up states in the process that favor him with the kinds of processes that favor him. and by the end of march, we will

see 70% of the delegates allocated. we are talking about a couple of months here. you have about a dozen states in that period of time that kevin madden was talking about that have winner take all, if the person gets above 50%. a state like california has 169 delegates. if trump where to get over 50%, to get all of those delegates. that is new. that is something the trump campaign pushed for. if you look at those two dates between march 5 and march 19, there's over 1200 delegates at stake just in the -- those two weeks. 1215 is the magic number that somebody needs to get. with all of these potentially winner take all states, i'm circling march 23 because march 19, i am calling winner take all tuesday because they are finally going to be states saying whoever wins gets all the delegates then. we may be talking about trump wrapping up the nomination i the end of march. -- by the end of march.

geoff: i think one of the underreported stories of the trump era has to do with the way donald trump and his allies reengineered the infrastructure of the republican party, and installed maga acolytes and his supporters in key state positions. many of them are state party chairs. tell me about that and how he is capitalizing on it. domenico: it is usually under covered story. he was able to hire people who understand the delicate process and were doing this at times were people were not paying that much attention. sure, the ron desantis campaign was trying to wrap up. they have people trying to influence this as well but trump is a quasi-incumbent. while he was president, he installed a lot of loyalists within the state parties so you wouldn't have something that happened in 2016 on the floor of the convention where ted cruz and people associated with him could mount this kind of potential challenge. it did not work but trump was not wanting to see a repeat of some wwe style moment that we

all had to watch where ted cruz is coming down from the rafters. he was saying i want this wrapped up quickly and they have leveraged almost everything that they can. whether it is incentivizing people to go to mar-a-lago or bedminster to be wined and dined, or to be threatened with potential punishment if trump does become president and be iced out of the process. geoff: how well does nikki haley have to do in new hampshire to have a reasonable argument to stay in the race? domenico: a lot of people are saying she will have to win, considering she finished third place in iowa. i think it will be difficult for her to win in a place like south carolina. if she finishes at a reasonably close second place, considering trump has had a double-digit lead there, she could make the argument she needs to move on. but you have to look at a demographic of the electric -- electorate in new hampshire. you will not have another state that is quite as moderate where

haley can appeal to those voters because it is not the majority of the republican caucuses right now, republican primary voters right now. you saw last night in the entrance polls, two thirds of republican caucus-goers said they felt even if trump was convicted of a crime that he would still be fit to be president. only three in 10 voters say they felt joe biden was legitimately elected. that is not the profile of the kinds of voters that nikki haley can really appeal to and win with. geoff: domenico, thank you so much for coming in. domenico: you're welcome. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, major snow and ice storms, and bitter wind chills plagued much of the country again. in state after state, classes were canceled, planes were grounded, and homes were dark. stephanie sy has our report.

stephanie: after days of freezing cold and snow, major cities across the united states woke up to find schools and offices closed. more than 1300 flights on the east coast were canceled. for many places on the east coast, including manhattan, it's the first significant snowfall in years. new york hadn't seen more than an inch of snow in 701 days. philadelphia has faced a similar snow drought. >> my daughter's four. she doesn't remember the snow, so it is her first time actually checking it out. so yesterday, i said it might snow today, you guys. so, when they woke up this morning, i see snow all over the ground, they lost their minds. stephanie: in the country's interior, temperatures have stayed below freezing. a brief warm-up is predicted, but a new surge of cold air is expected by the end of the week. wind chills in the rockies, great plains, and midwest plunged as low as -30 degrees. austin rowser is managing the snow removal in omaha, nebraska

where crews have been working overtime. >> we've had a lot of people working 12 hour days for, you know, nine, 10 days in a row. so, it's been -- obviously, that's a lot of time. it's a lot of effort, a lot of work and a lot of dedication that our people have put into the snow. stephanie: in these dangerous conditions, he warns drivers to be vigilant. >> the best thing for anybody to do in any location and conditions are bad is just to make sure that you have plenty of time to slow down, you know, understand how your vehicle operates differently. we can't slam on brakes. we've got ice on the road. stephanie: farther south, snowplows cleared the roads during the winter storm warning in tennessee. a layer of snow covered western kentucky, and freezing rain created icy conditions in alabama. but, it wasn't all misery. >> our arsenal of snowballs. stephanie: with federal offices closed in washington, d.c., the national mall was for snow

lovers who have waited two years for enough snow to put up a proper fight. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy. amna: so far, the arctic wave is blamed for at least seven deaths nationwide. and, a new ice storm is moving into the pacific northwest and heading east. the top tax policy makers in congress announced a bipartisan agreement today to expand the child tax credit and restore a variety of breaks for businesses. the package totals roughly $78 billion paid for by ending a pandemic-era business credit. lawmakers are pushing to win passage before tax filing season kicks off. ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy made an urgent, new appeal today for help against russia. he met with u.s. secretary of state antony blinken and others at the world economic forum in switzerland. and, he warned against letting war fatigue undermine kyiv's cause.

>> if anyone thinks this is only about us, this is only about ukraine, they are fundamentally mistaken. if one must fight against putin together in the years ahead, isn't it better to put an end to him and his war strategy now? amna: meanwhile in moscow, russian president vladimir putin declared his forces have regained momentum in the war, and he insisted russia will not give up any territorial gains in ukraine. back in this country, the killer of five people at an lgtbq nightclub in colorado has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crimes charges. anderson aldrich has admitted shooting patrons of club q in colorado springs in november of 2022. aldrich pleaded guilty to state murder charges last year. the federal charges carry a possible death penalty. a federal judge in boston blocked jetblue airways today from buying spirit airlines.

the justice department had sued to block the merger of low-cost carriers worth $3.8 billion. today, the judge agreed it would hurt competition and drive up fares. wall street had a lackluster day following the holiday weekend. the dow jones industrial average lost 232 points to close at 37,361. the nasdaq fell 28 points. the s&p 500 slipped nearly 18. and, the 75th primetime emmy awards are now history with some historic firsts. quinta brunson won best actress in a comedy, "abbott elementary." she's the first black woman to do that in more than 40 years. and, ali wong became the first asian-american best actress in a limited series for her role in "beef." overall, the final season of hbo's "succession" won six awards last night. and, "the bear," about a struggling chicago sandwich joint, won best comedy.

still to come on the "newshour," donald trump appears in court for the defamation case brought by writer e. jean carroll. a new book explores how populist politicians have transformed the democratic party. a group of students take it on themselves to address the growing mental health needs in schools. plus, much more. ♪ >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the biden administration soon designate who the militants in yemen as a specially designated global terrorist group. it follows more than 30 houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the red sea and a reversal from the first days of the binding administration when the u.s. delisted the houthis is a foreign terrorist organization. earlier today, israel and hamas agreed to allow more medicine into gaza, both for gazans and

for the more than 100 israelis still held hostage. but attacks in the last 24 hours in lebanon and iraq has caused middle east and american officials to voice concerns about the risks of wider war. nick schifrin reports. nick: across the region tonight, fears of escalation. today, israel launched one of its largest salvos against hezbollah in lebanon since october 7. just yesterday, a mother and son were buried together, killed on sunday by a hezbollah missile. in northern iraq, iran launched a rare ballistic missile attack on what it said was a local office of israel's spy agency. but, among the dead was a kurdish multimillionaire and his family, killed in their home. and off the coast of yemen, u.s. warships launched the third round of strikes on the houthis in six days. the target today, four houthi ballistic missiles before they could be fired.

the houthis welcome war, and once again, today launched a missile the u.s. military said struck a maltese-flagged ship that was able to sail away. >> what we have right now in the region is a recipe for escalation everywhere. nick: 3000 miles away at the world economic forum, leaders fromhe region and national security advisor jake sullivan acknowledged concerns of wider war. >> we have to guard against and be vigilant against the possibility that, in fact, rather than heading towards de escalation, we are on a path of escalation that we have to manage. nick: purposely or not, hamas' october 7 terrorist attack accelerated existing tensions. and today, de-escalation runs through gaza, said sullivan and qatari prime minister mohammad al thani. >> we should focus on the main conflict in gaza. and as soon as it is defused, i believe everything else will be defused. nick: but, the spark and smoke of the war in gaza continues to

spread. today in central gaza's nuseirat refugee camp, families carted all they had left. the u.n. says gazans are stalked by the long shadow of starvation. today in rafah, mohammad al-shondogli waited for food with his children. >> our bodies are ill, my children are ill due to lack of food. this is not enough. nick: despite israel's campaign, today, palestinian militants fired more than two dozen rockets into israel, the highest number in more than a week. and a reminder of how far israel is from achieving its military goals. but, there is disunity on how to achieve those goals. prime minster benjamin netanyahu wants to continue the war until hamas is destroyed. war cabinet member and opposition leader benny gantz is willing to stop if it comes with the release of more than 100 hostages. >> happy birthday. bring them home now. nick: there is a reminder of the hostages' absence every day.

today is kfir bibas' first birthday. he and his family were taken from their homes 102 days ago. hamas says they were killed in an israeli airstrike, but his extended family holds out hope he survived to see his second year. as for that agreement between israel and hamas to allow more medicine into gaza, it was negotiated by qatar. netanyahu said today that two qatari air force planes will fly to egypt tomorrow to deliver medicine both for israeli hostages and millions of gazans who need them. for more on the direction of israel's war in gaza, as well as the splits within the israeli war cabinet, we turn to david makovsky, distinguished fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. a former journalist and was also a senior adviser for israeli-palestinian negotiations during the obama administration. thank you. welcome back. as we said, there is a split in the war cabinet when it comes to hostages. it appears netanyahu and the defense minister on one side.

what is behind that and how significant is it? david: it is one of the two big conceptual debates in the five-member war cabinet. basically, the netanyahu school says the way to get the hostages is the put more military pressure on the war. the more you dig under the tunnels in southern gaza where it is believed the leaders of hamas are located, the better you have a chance of securing their release. the other school is of the centrists who happen to be two former idf israeli chiefs of staff. they pride themselves on their pragmatism. one lost a son in this war. the two of them say, look, it is 102 days now with these hostages. you don't have all the time in the world and the best way to secure the release is to cut a deal with egypt, qatar, whoever

that may be. if that involves some sort of extended pause, so be it. you can always renew hostilities at a later time, but in terms of what to prioritize, hostages or the war, the priority should go to the hostages. nick: the second big division within the war cabinet, as you mentioned, is between netanyahu and the defense minister. yesterday, he said palestinians would govern gaza in the future, something netanyahu has not said. he also set "political indecision may harm the progress of the military operation." what is he saying? david: i think gallant is saying we cannot just kick the can down the road about what is postwar look like. let's be real, the palestinian authority should come back. they governed gaza until hamas threw them off the rooftops in

2007 until this war. the defense establishment wants the p.a. to come back. the prime minister is very fearful that gantz and the centrists that enlarged the government after the october 7 atrocities, that they will lock, that they will go for elections. and he will be stuck with the people holding the balance of power, the hard right. and the finance minister. he does not seem to want to offend those two because he might think the future of his government depends on them. he won't say the words palestinian authority or palestinian. he will say with the war looks like afterwards. right now, we don't have to decide. nick: this is not just about politics. this is life and death for many people. this is the fate of the war itself. david: i think the secretary of state's visit to the region last week was, ok, look ahead a bit

now. are you going to allow people to go back to their homes in northern gaza? you told would million people go to the south. you almost won the north, not y et. do you have a plan to bring them back to their homes? if so, who is going to run public orders, civilian services, basic services? i think what they are trying to tell none etanyahu is we cannot kick the can down the road. nick: there is genuine frustration in the biden administration with netanyahu. is he listening? david: i am not sure. the president in particular, who was wildly popular in israel, it is very personal there. almost as if he's the father of the country. he is viewed as someone who really cares about their security and nothing that is very important. but somehow, that public support

is not translated when he says, ok, bibi, this is what i want you to do, which there are certain transfers which you owe the palestinian authority. i think netanyahu is more concerned about political calculations and the hard right. i think the president's right to press the point with the prime minister. nick: as you were saying earlier, whenever president biden or any official brings up a two state solution, it lands like a lead balloon. do you think there's a different way to talk about the two state solution that the u.s. can find? david: when we talk about two states in america, we want something that gives dignity to both sides. i still think it is the right approach. but, a lot of us and in the administration, they assume the palestinian state will look like costa rica. when the israelis hear two states, look at what hamas was able to do without smuggling in things. they see that state is looking

like north korea. therefore, we need to somehow talk about what sort of two state solution we are talking about. and not just what the borders are going to be like. and i have worked on this issue myself. but, how are we going to enforce it? we say the word demilitarized but the israelis are convinced hamas will always out muscling more pragmatic palestinian leadership to take it into a more different, militant direction. there has to be a way to talk about this in a way we are talking about the same sort of two states because right now, us in the u.s. and them in israel are just talking past each other. nick: thank you so much. david: thank you very much for having me. geoff: fresh off his win in iowa, former president trump spent time in a new york courtroom. the trial that started today

will decide how much he owes writer e. jean carroll for defaming her while he was president. mr. trump was already found liable for sexually abusing carroll in the 1990's and then lying about her years later. william brangham was in the courtroom and joins us now from new york. william, tell us what transpired in court today. william: today was jury selection so 58 potential jurors were whittled down to nine. judge lewis kaplan gave instructions to those jurors today and he was as crystal clear about what this case is all about. he says this is not a do over of the previous case. this is not a chance for trump to get another bite of the apple. he was very clear to the jury. he said that donald trump sexually assaulted e. jean carroll back in the 1990's and very briefly, but very graphically, he described what happened in the dressing room. he said then trump defamed her

when she came forward and said it happened. he said she lied about it and he never met her and that she made this up to make money. and the judge said trump new that those things were false when he said them. that is not what this case is about. the judge said this case is about what is e. jean carroll owed for that defamation? the striking thing about watching today's proceedings unfold is that in the previous times we have seen donald trump in court, it is always donald trump against some governmental prosecutor. a special counsel, a attorney general, the state district attorney. here, it was donald trump against this one woman who he violently sexually assaulted almost 30 years ago. and just seeing them in court, it is possible this is the first time they have been in the same room together since that assault almost three decades ago. i watched e. jean carroll very closely for the four hours that they were together in the room

and only once did she sneak one slight sideways glance at him and that was the extent of it. geoff: what is ms. carroll seeking from donald trump in terms of financial damages? william: she is asking for $10 million for compensatory and punitive damages. she has already received $5 million from the previous case for the assault and for some definition from donald trump -- some defamation from donald trump. these are about statements he made while he was president. e. jean carroll's lawyer referred to this as donald trump using the world's biggest megaphone to say that she was a liar, that she made all these things up. they are arguing they want that money to basically salvage her ruined reputation for the emotional distress she has suffered. they argue that donald trump's statements about her has unleashed this torrent of vile

tweets. she showed many of them. threats and statements about how she should be assaulted again by millions of trump's followers. and they argue that they need to make him pay in order to force him to stop because the former president has not stopped. just today alone, he has posted 30 different posts or reposts about e. jean carroll. trump's defense to all of this is that to argue reputational damage from what the president, then president said, is ludicrous. they argue, trump's lawyer today said that e. jean carroll has thrived since you told the story. she has been on talk shows, planning a documentary series. to try to blame two statements that then-president made for unleashing all of these, as they call them bad trolls on the internet, is inappropriate and they are trying to punish him for no good reason. geoff: we know that donald trump

did not show up in court for the first trial when a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. why did he appear today? william: it is a very good question. it is legally hard to understand why he came to this trial where he's already been found guilty on all of these major accounts and did not come back when he could have potentially made a difference in that case. as many have noted, all of these cases that trump is involved with has just become part of his political campaign. i think he's hoping to create this montage of videos of him entering courtrooms all over new york and florida and d.c. and georgia to try to say this is the deep state coming after me and interfering. about one hour ago, he posted saying i would've preferred to be in new hampshire, but i have to be in this court with a trump hating judge and another political witch hunt. i think legally, the case is

hard to make. politically, that is what the former president is doing here. geoff: william brangham, thank you. william: my pleasure, geoff. ♪ amna: diabetics across the country will now see a break in their out-of-pocket costs for insulin. this month, sanofi, one of the leading manufacturers of the hormone, joined two other major pharmaceutical companies in capping their insulin co-pays at $35. this comes after years of pressure by president biden, lawmakers, and activists for companies to lower their list prices. white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has been covering this and joins me now. good to see you. these insulin price caps from manufacturers this past month follows last year's price caps for medicare recipients. tell us about the impact of both

of these things together. laura: what took effect this month was that sanofi followed suit with eli lilly to have this cap of $35 for co-pays. that comes after the medicare cap on insulin costs at $35 monthly for people. that comes after president biden was also pressuring these companies to do this and after the provisions of the inflation reduction act he passed with those medicare insulin caps took effect last year. now, just to add some context of what the full impact, about to run through numbers about insulin in the u.s. around 8.4 million diabetics need to inject insulin to survive, according to the american diabetes association. the three major manufacturers, sanofi, novo nordic, and eli lilly, make up more than 90% of the insulin market.

the medicare provisions in the inflation reduction act mean that about 1.7 million medicare beneficiaries stand to benefit from that $35 monthly co-pay cap on their insulin. that shows the significance of what's been happening. amna: millions of people who have to worry about this. are there still people who are still left out of coverage now? laura: this could impact a lot of people, but the key difference with what the manufacturers did between the medicare provision is that the medicare provision is automatic. that means someone goes to a pharmacy, they are able to benefit from that $35 monthly co-pay. whereas, people who are under private insurance or who are not insured who may benefit from what the manufacturers did, it is not automatic. they have to register for programs and it could become pretty complicated for them very quickly. i spoke to a policy director at t1 international. they advocate for insulin

access. she says she is fearful that manufacturers could simply decide at any point, we are not going to provide this reduction essentially what needs to happen is a federal mandate. that way, these manufacturers for uninsured patients, people who have private insurance can benefit from a cap on their insulin cost. amna: you mentioned the insulin cap for medicare beneficiaries as part of the inflation reduction act. are there other health care measures that are taking effect this year or next? laura: we have seen two big ones take effect. the insulin co-pay caps and the free vaccines. there's a lot more to come for medicare beneficiaries. i want to run through the timeline. basically, 60 million people are covered under medicare. this month, in january 2024, prescript and cost of certain drugs for medicare recipients is going to be capped at $3300 annually. that is especially helpful for

people with expensive medication for chronic conditions like arthritis and cancer. in september of this year, the new list prices of 10 major drugs are going to be made public. that was made possible by the inflation reduction act provision allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. by 2025, the annual cap on prescription costs will drop to $2000. in 2026, those new drug list prices that medicare was allowed to negotiate will take effect, so people will start to feel it. i spoke to the deputy director of medicare policy for kff, and this is how she described the significance of those negotiated drug prices. >> this has been for years a concern for policymakers, particularly democrats who thought medicare should have the ability to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. but prior to the inflation reduction act, it was actually prohibited by law. so, giving medicare the ability

to negotiate drug prices is meaningful because there are 60 million people governed -- covered by medicare and that's a lot of leverage the federal government has. laura: when she says for years the democrats have been trying to pass a law that allows medicare to negotiate drug prices, she is talking about going back decades to the george w. bush administration when this was trying to get past. for those that are concerned about the deficit, she says this has an impact on that as well. >> the congressional budget office estimated that medicare would save around $300 billion over 10 years as a result of the changes in the inflation reduction act. and much of that is due to the new negotiation program that medicare is currently implementing. so, medicare will save money because the cost of drugs will be lower. laura: what that means is that medicare costs for american taxpayers will also be lower and

it will be lower for medicare patients. amna: you have been digging into this and reporting all of this. do most people understand all of these changes? i guess politically, is president biden getting credit? laura: the short answer is that no, most people don't understand these changes that are occurring. and part of that may be the inflation reduction act was this big signature law that the president passed that include climate change provisions and other elements, that it appears some democrats say is hard for the average voter to understand. i spoke to a veteran democratic pollster who said even more than a year after the inflation reduction act was passed, voters still don't quite know what is in it. >> the biden campaign has tons of good stories to tell. everything from historical environmental legislation to infrastructure legislation to negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. but again, the challenge is, and

we are seeing that with voters, is so many of them don't know and they are not connecting the dots. laura: juliette echoed that. this is something the biden campaign will have to address this year. amna: we plan to hear more? so far, the opening reelection campaign has been largely about democracy. will these issues be a bigger part of the message? laura: it will have to be a critical part, particularly if the president will close the gap in voters perceptions around the economy. being able to lower health care costs and people's pocketbooks will be a part of that economic message. they have spent tens of millions of dollars on tv ads and digital ads, some of which highlight the reduction in insulin caps, the ability for medicare to negotiate drug prices. but still, cornell said they would have to do a lot more than just conventional tv ads. >> you have to flood the box in a way not even we had to do in 2012 or 2008.

i think the campaign has to lean in to social media spaces harder and in a new way than we've ever had to in the past. laura: ultimately, a lot of the democratic lawmakers i spoke to said they want to see biden make this message more in key battleground states as early as possible. the key difference they said between 2016 and hillary clinton's campaign and this election cycle and joe biden's campaign is that democrats in battleground states say that biden's campaign is actually heating their warnings. amna: that is laura barr on-lopez. thank you so much. laura: thank you. ♪ geoff: between the house gop's government funding fight and former president donald trump's hold on the republican party, much has been made of the far-right's strong sway over the gop and its agenda.

but, what doesn't get nearly as much attention is the far-left's influence in the democratic party. i sat down last week with joshua green to discuss just that. it's the focus of his latest book called "the rebels: elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, alexandria ocasio-cortez, and the struggle for a new american politics." joshua green, welcome to the "newshour." joshua: good to be with you. thanks. geoff: in the book, you trace the rise of the modern-day progressive movement to the 2008 financial crisis. how was that a clarifying moment and a catalyst for progressive politics and progressive politicians? joshua: i mean, to me, the 2008 crash and its aftermath was the defining event in recent u.s. political history, and then it gave rise to this furious populist backlash on the right, which eventually gave rise to donald trump, but also on the left, which gave rise to my characters. first, elizabeth warren, then bernie sanders, who nearly succeeded in winning the democratic nomination in 2016, and then ultimately to this new

generation of younger progressives such as alexandria ocasio-cortez and the cohort around her in congress. geoff: you mentioned elizabeth warren. and in the book, you explore how she ultimately emerged at the center of the government's response to the financial crisis. and, you know, at the time, she was an unlikely voice in that regard. walk us through her evolution based on your reporting. joshua: yeah. warren is a fascinating figure. i got to know her just after the crisis. she was still a harvard law professor, but she had just been appointed one of the overseers of the government's bailout of wall street after the crash. and she used that fairly obscure position as a platform to really go after the obama administration, the banks, and articulate this version of left-wing populism that really hadn't had a voice in recent american political history. it wound up catching fire, really starting a movement. and within a few years, even before she ran for senate in 2012, you know, people in washington would talk about the

elizabeth warren wing of the democratic party. so, it helped give rise to this new brand of progressivism that that we saw rise up in the wake of the crisis. geoff: and fast forward to the current moment. how do you view the progressive influence on president biden's agenda? because you could argue that he has governed like an economic populist, and in many ways, far less than the centrist democrat that he was expected to be, given his long track record. joshua: which is really a remarkable evolution. when i first came to washington as a reporter in 2000, biden was a senator from delaware. he was known as a great friend of business, was sometimes jokingly referred to as the senator from corporate america. i think biden's evolution in particular has been an interesting one, because he was in the white house with barack obama as his vice president when that first crash hit, and then when he was elected president, inherited another great economic crash that followed the covid pandemic. and the response to those two crashes, i think, illustrates what an effect these populists

have had. after covid, biden put in place multiple rounds of stimulus. unemployment benefits, student loan freezes, small business loans, but all of it focused on the middle class in a way that hadn't necessarily been true of the response to the crisis. and so when you hear biden speak today about the economy, he talks about building it from the middle out. he shows up on union picket lines. he does things that would have been fairly unimaginable for a centrist democrat to do, you know, 10, 15 or 20 years ago. geoff: what is it about the democratic brand of populism that's different from the kind of populism that trump supporters prefer? joshua: well, the populism that i write about with warren, bernie, and ocasio-cortez is really focused on economic populism. and i think my last book, "devil's bargain," was about the rise of steve bannon, donald trump, and right-wing populism. and mostly, i think, that's focused on a kind of cultural populism, a lot of anger toward immigration.

america-first nationalism. certainly, there are some ecomic components. trump is very hawkish toward trade. he put in place steel tariffs the biden administration has kept in place. there are areas of overlap. but to me, it's the cultural element that distinguishes the right-wing populism from the left-wing populism that i write about in this book. geoff: what about the politicians themselves? is there a ceiling of support for progressive candidates, you know, democrats who might support progressive policies? there hasn't been enough support from the democratic base to propel one of the progressive politicians into the white house. joshua: it's an interesting question, because if you go back to 2019, i was embedded with with warren and with sanders for a time during the democratic primaries when they were both running for president. it seemed like in the moment that progressive politics was really taking off. and yet neither one of them emerged as the democratic nominee, partly because there were two of them running and they split the progressive vote. but really, i think there is a ceiling on candidates who are

explicitly defined as left-wing progressives in democratic primaries. it's really only in deep blue places like ocasio-cortez's district in new york and a few other places where these these true left-wing progressives, democratic socialists have been able to get themselves elected. but we've seen in a lot of races since then in democratic primaries and general elections that they try and they fail. so, one of the arguments i make in the book is the future of this brand of progressivism may not be through these particular politicians, but through politicians like joe biden, whose kind of code is more moderate, is more centrist, but who still take up and put into place a lot of the politics that my characters gave rise to. geoff: the book is "the rebels: elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, alexandria ocasio-cortez, and the struggle for a new american politics." joshua green, thanks for coming in. good to talk. joshua: thanks so much, geoff. appreciate it. ♪

amna: mental health among the nation's student population has been a growing concern, especially coming out of the covid-19 pandemic. many states are trying to make sure there are adequate resources for schools' needs. from pbs wisconsin, steven potter reports on how peer support, school staff, and psychology researchers are trying to keep up with the growing rate of mental health issues among k-12 students in wisconsin. it's part of our series, "early warnings: america's youth mental health crisis." >> i think every school principal would love to have more mental health professionals. steven: despite having a handful of counselors, a school psychologist and a social worker on staff, andy farley, principal of brookfield east high school, says they still have trouble meeting the mental health needs of their 1400 students. >> it's never going to be enough. steven: farley knows firsthand how devastating student mental

health problems can become. a few years back, a number of students at brookfield east high school died from suicide. >> it was incredibly difficult. incredibly difficult at our school level, incredibly difficult at our community level. we all knew we had to do something. steven: they created a local chapter of the national, student-led mental health support network called the hope squad. on a weekly basis, the school's 60 student members discuss new strategies to help their classmates stay mentally healthy, from the importance of getting enough sleep and social-emotional learning techniques to recognizing suicide warning signs. brookfield east sophomore ledra ashenbrenner is a hope squad member. >> from a student standpoint, we are like the eyes and the ears of the school. we bridge the gap between students and counselors and teachers because, like research has shown, students are more likely to go to their peers if they're having an issue that they need help with. >> 20% of kids have some type of

behavioral or social emotional concern. steven: katie eklund is a professor of school psychology at uw-madison. >> but we know out of that group, only 20% of those kids actually receive that support. steven: eklund works to find solutions to the increasing rates of young children suffering from anxiety and depression, including those harming themselves or considering suicide. >> unmet mental health concerns we see often by the time kids get to high school, we see kids not coming to school, we see lower grades, we see higher incidence in the juvenile justice system and just lower, poor psychosocial outcomes throughout life. steven: eklund says children aren't getting the help they need because of a shortage of mental health professionals such as therapists, counselors, and school psychologists. according to the national center for education statistics, 70% of public schools say more students are seeking mental health services. but, 87% of those schools said

they can't provide it. eklund and her colleagues, however, have a plan and new resources to address this shortage with a $10 million grant from the u.s. department of education. >> it's designed to increase the pipeline of school psychologists or social workers and school counselors who are working in k-12 schools around the country. steven: she says the need speaks for itself. >> in 2018, we had 60 to 70 unfilled positions across the state of school psychologists. we anticipate that schools, social workers, and counselors are experiencing similar shortages, both here in the state and across the country, and that those shortages have only increased over the last five years. steven: while everyone from school administrators and teachers to the students themselves agree that more mental health professionals are needed in schools, they would still need to be paid. and that's where the state legislature could come in. democratic state representative robyn vining has introduced a package of bills aimed at increasing funding k-12 mental

health services and says we're well past the time for action. >> we know there's a mental health care crisis. we know that. and so, we cannot look away. i don't believe that we can move forward right now without acting on mental health care. steven: one of representative vining's bills would increase state spending on mental healthcare services in the state's school system by $100 million per year. >> we're talking about children who are experiencing anxiety, depression, suicidality. and we're trying to get professionals to be available to work with them to help them survive this very difficult stage of life. steven: and so, at the local, state and national level, wisconsin is working to respond to the growing mental health needs of its youngest population. for the "pbs newshour," i'm steven potter in brookfield, wisconsin.

geoff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has beenrovided by -- >> how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. i thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting at ovations in education, democratic engagement and the enhancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. and the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible

by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. from gaza to ukraine and beyond, we take a hard look at the suffering of civilians trapped in war zones. with martin griffiths, u.n. humanitarian chief.