wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, former president 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 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.

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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. good to see you. i wanted your take on some consternation around how early the call came by the associated press, just half an hour after the caucuses began. lots of iowans hadn't voted yet but the associated rest explained today -- press explained today, they determined the winner on an analysis of early returns and a survey of voters who plant to caucus. both showed trump with an insurmountable lead. they make these calls when the math lines up. is the criticism warranted? >> you are right, every campaign i have worked on we have seen these early calls. you would think campaigns would be used with that we have to be cognizant of the fact that there is a high sense of distrust

among republican voters and republican campaigns and that is driving that level of consternation. we all know the ap has rigorous standards and protocols with how they announce this but i think the media has to have a bit of self reflection about whether there is a utility in answering or releasing the call so early when you still have people voting, especially in the age of a smartphone where everybody has a computer in their pocket and can see that information while voting. amna: let's take a look at the results and how trump with -- did win so big. he dominated every demographic. an entrance polls iowans were asked what qualities were important. for people who said they wanted someone who fights for people like me, 82% of those folks broke for trump, 10% for desantis, 5% for vivek ramaswamy and 4% for nikki haley. why do these numbers stand out?

>> one thing we are seeing now is the emerging world view of republican voters. one of the first things they are looking at is, can somebody in november? and the electability argument, the idea that somebody is out there fighting for them, that is a very i think potent argument that many republican primary voters are seeing right now. that is why this era -- this air of inevitability is coasting around trump right now. one thing that is interesting, if you look at general elections many close general elections live or die on that question. which candidate understands or reflects the principles of people like me? for folks who are watching from the white house and the biden campaign, they see that number as very high and potent with republican voters. it creates a difficult general election matchup for them on a

similar question. amna: on the fight for second place, mr. desantis banked it all on iowa, finishing well behind mr. trump, slightly ahead of haley but headed to south carolina, haley's home state. here's what he said. >> she was governor here for six years. can you name major achievements under her tenure? tell me if there are. amna: haley released a new ad today which, it said she wouldn't participate in the debate unless trump took part. he wasn't going to take part and abc canceled the debate but she is present in herself as the alternative to trump and biden. >> both are consumed by chaos, negativity, and grievances of the past. the better choice for a better america? nikki haley. amna: those are different messages. they are punching in different directions. how will that play out? >> one challenge for desantis,

his argument is focused on nikki haley and it is a defensive argument. he is in a state where he is a most skipping a number of other big primary states. not playing on the stage in new hampshire while everybody else is in new hampshire. that creates a void i think for the desantis campaign. haley has had a prepackaged strategy coming out of iowa, which is no matter what she will say this is a two person race between me and donald trump. she is sticking to that. that is where i think we will see these messages go for both of these campaigns. one thing i know, haley believes the best way to make the case to a lot of republican voters is to show that she would be the best candidate to take on joe biden and a general election. that is a key component for her message with not only voters in new hampshire, but all of these primary states. you look at march 5 and march 19, a big chunk of delegates will be at stake if that is her

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

will be the nominee. inevitability i think for nikki haley and ron desantis is a very tough message to fight against. they have their work cut out for them. amna: kevin, good to talk to you. 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. good to see you. we know 40 republican delegates were up for grabs last night, allocated proportionately. how did donald trump's commanding victory last night position him in the delegate race? >> i would say may it is not a long road. this thing has been moved up significantly because the trump campaign, which is more sophisticated this time than 2016, has been able to make a lot of effort to move up states in the process that favor him with the processes that favor him. by the end of march we will see

70% of the delegates allocated so only a couple months, and when you look at a bout a dozen states in that period of time that have winner take all, if the person gets above 50% meaning a state like california has 169 delegates. if trump got over 50% like last night, he gets all of them. that is new, something the trump campaign pushed for. when you look at those two dates kevin mentioned, march 5 and march 19, there are over 1200 delegates at stake. 1215 is the magic number that somebody needs to get. with all of these potentially winner take all states i'm circling march 23 on my calendar because arch 19th i'm calling winner take all tuesday. they will finally be states saying whoever wins, it is all the delegates and we may be talking about trump wrapping up the nomination by the end of march.

geoff: one of the most underreported stories of the trump era has to do with the ways in which donald trump and his allies reengineer the infrastructure of the republican party and installed maggot -- maga acolytes in key state positions. tell me about that and how he is capitalizing on it. >> it is an under covered story. he hired people who really understand the delegate process and are doing this at times when people weren't paying attention. the desantis campaign had people who were trying to influence this, but trump is a quasi-incumbent. while he was president he installed a lot of loyalists within those state parties so you wouldn't have something like 2016 on the floor of the convention where ted cruz and people associated with him could mount this potential challenge. it didn't work but trump was like, not wanting to see a repeat of a wwe style moment

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

because it is not the majority of the republican caucuses right now, republican primary voters. last night in the entrance polls, two thirds of republican caucus-goers said they felt even if trump was convicted of a crime, he would still be fit to be president. only three and 10 voters said they thought 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: thanks for coming in. >> you are welcome. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with newshour west. here are the latest 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 1,300 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. >> and 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 negative 30 degrees. austin rowser is managing the snow removal in omaha, nebraska,

where crews have been working overtime. >> we have had a lot of people working 12 hour days for 9, 10 days in a row. it has been obviously, a lot of time and effort and work and dedication that our people have put into the snow. stephanie: in these dangerous conditions, he wants drivers to be vigilant. >> the best thing for anybody to do in any location when 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. vanessa: so far, the arctic wave is blamed for at least 5 deaths nationwide over the holiday weekend. and a new ice storm is moving into the pacific northwest, and heading east. the top tax policymakers 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. ukraine's president so lenski -- 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 that 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? vanessa: meanwhile in moscow, russian president vladimir putin declared his forces have regained momentum in the war. back in this country, the killer of five people at an lgbtq nightclub in colorado springs plans to plead guilty to federal hate crimes. anderson aldrich had previously admitted to the killings at club q in november 2022, and pleaded guilty to state murder charges last year. aldrich's plea agreement with federal prosecutors includes guilty pleas for 50 hate crimes charges. if it is approved by a judge, the deal would spare them the 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. 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 6 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 also, 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, and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the biden administration will soon designate houthi militants in yemen as a specially designated global terrorist group, a white house official tells the newshour. it follows more than 30 houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the red sea. and it's a reversal from the first days of the biden administration, when the u.s. de-listed the houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. agreed to allow more medicine into gaza, both for gazans, and for more than 100 israelis still held hostage. but attacks in the last 24 hours in lebanon and iraq have caused middle east and u.s. 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 the 7th. 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 6 days. the kurt -- the target today, 4 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 from the 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 passive -- a path of escalation that we have to manage. nick: purposely or not, hamas' october 7th 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. as soon as it is diffused, i think 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' 1st 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. and 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 it. 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, former journalist and a senior adviser for israeli-palestinian negotiations during the obama administration. david, thanks very much. >> happy to be with you. nick: welcome back to news hour. as we just said, there's a split in the war cabinet when it comes to hostages. it appears that netanyahu and defense minister gallant on one side benny gantz on the other. , what's behind that and how significant is it? >> look, i think it's very important. it's one of the two big

conceptual debates in a five member war cabinet. basically the netanyahu gallant school says the way to get the hostages is to put more military pressure in this war. the more you dig under the tunnels in yhan yunis in southern gaza, where it is believed that mohammed deif and yaha sinwar are located -- nick: the hamas leadership -- >> 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 military chiefs of staff who pride themselves on their pragmatism. benny gantz, you mentioned another, gadi eisenkot, who lost his son, by the way, in this war. and the two of them say, look, it's 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. and then, 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 gallant, the defense minister. yesterday, gallant said that palestinians will govern gaza in the future, something netanyahu has not said. and then, he took a not so subtle swipe. he said, quote, "political indecision may harm the progress of the military operation." what is he saying? >> i think here, gallant is saying we can't kick the can down the road about what is -- does the post-war look like. let's be real. the palestinian authority should come back. they governed gaza from 1994 to 2007 until hamas kind of threw them off the rooftops in 2007 until this war. so the defense establishment wants the p.a. to come back. the prime minister, however, is

very fearful that gantz and eisenkot, the centrist that enlarged his government after the october 7th atrocities, that they will walk, that they will go for elections, and that he will be stuck with the people holding the balance of power. guess who? the hard right. and mr. smotrich, who is the finance minister. ben-gvir. the police minister. so he doesn't seem to want to offend those two because he might think the future of his government depends on these two guys. so he won't say the words, p.a. he won't say the words "palestinian authority," won't say "palestinian." he'll just say, let's see what the world looks like afterwards. right now, we don't have to decide. nick: but this isn't only about politics, david, as you know, right? this is life and death for many people. this is the fate of the war itself. right? this is important. >> of course. i think the secretary of state's visit to the region last week was okay, look ahead a bit now. are you going to allow, you know, people to go back to their homes in northern gaza? you wanted to keep, you know, palestinians from getting killed. you told a million

people go to the south, okay, now you have won the north. do you have a plan to bring them back to their homes? and if so, who's going to run public orders? you know, civilian services, basic basic services. and so i think what what gallant and halevy are trying to tell me -- telnet and yahoo! -- tell netanyahu is, hey, we can't just kick the can down the road. there are going to be some decisions. we have to make sooner rather than later. nick: there is some genuine frustration in the biden administration with netanyahu himself. is netanyahu listening? >> not sure. i mean, i think the the president in particular, who's wildly popular in israel, i just came back. every meeting starts with thank you, joe biden. it's ry personal there, almost as if he's like the father of the country. he's viewed as someone who really cares about their security. and i think that's very important. but somehow that public support is not translated when he says, okay, bibi, this is what i want you to do, which is there's certain tax transfers that you owe the

palestinian authority in the west bank. yet here, i think netanyahu is more concerned about political calculations, about the hard right. and i think the president is right to press the point with the prime minister. nick: as you were saying to me earlier, whenever president biden or any u.s. official brings up two state solution right now, it lands like a lead balloon. do you think quickly there is a different way to talk about the two state solution that the u.s. could find? >> when we in america talk about two states and some of us for our lives, we want something that gives dignity to both sides. and i still think it's the right approach. but a lot of us and in the administration, they assume that palestinian state is going to look like costa rica. yet with the israelis hear two states, they say, let's look at the industrial capacity hamas was able to do, without smuggling in things, their own industrial capacity. they see that state is looking more like north korea. and therefore, we need to somehow talk about what sort of two state solution we're talking about and not just what the

borders are going to be like. and i myself have worked on this issue, but how are we going to enforce it? yeah, we say the word demilitarized, but the israelis are convinced that hamas will always outmuscle a more pragmatic palestinian leadership to take it in a very different, more militant direction. and we've got to be , there's got to be away to talk about this in a way that we're talking about the same sort of two states, because right now, us in the us and them in israel, we're just talking past each other. nick: david mccaskey, always a pleasure. thanks so much. >> thank you very much for having me. ♪ geoff: fresh off his win in iowa, former president trump spent time in a new york city 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 1990s, and then lying about her years later. william brangham was in the courtroom and joins us now from new york. ls what transpired in court today. >> today was jury selection, so 58 potential jurors will winner -- winnowed down to nine. the judge gave instructions to the jurors. he was as crystal clear about what the case is all about. he said this isn't a do over of the previous case. this is not a chance for trump to get another bite at the apple. he was clear to the jury, he said that donald trump's -- donald trump sexually assaulted e. jean carroll back in the 1990's and very briefly but graphically, he described what happened in the dressing room. he said then trump defamed her when she came forward to say this happened. he said she lied about it, that he had never met her and she made this up to make money.

the judge said trump knew 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 the defamation? the striking thing about watching today's proceedings unfold is that in the previous times we have seen donald trum in court, it is always donald trump against some governmental prosecutor, a special counsel, attorney general, the state, did the -- the district attorney. here it was donald trump against one woman who he violently sexually assaulted almost 30 years ago. seeing them in court, it is possible this is the first time they have been in the same room again -- together since the assault almost three decades ago. i watched e. jean carroll closely for the four hours they were together and only once did she sneak one slight sideways glance at him and that was the extent of it.

geoff: what is ms. carroll speaking in terms of financial damages? >> 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 defamation from donald trump from 20 statements he made. these are about statements he made while he was president. e. jean carroll's referred -- lawyer for to this as using the world's biggest megaphone to say that she made all of this up. they are arguing that they want that money to basically salvage her ruined reputation, for the emotional distress she has suffered. they argue 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 followers. and they argued they need to make him pay in order to force him to stop, because the former president has not stop. just today alone, he posted 30 different posts or reposts about e. jean carroll. trumps defense to all of this is that, to argue reputational damage from what the president, the then president said is ludicrous. they argue, trumps lawyer said e. jean carroll has thrived since she told the story. she has been on talk shows, doing interviews and is planning a documentary series and to try to blame two statements that then president made her unleashing all of these, as they call them, bad trolls on the internet is an appropriate and they are trying to punish him for no good reason. geoff: we know donald trump didn't show up in court for the first trial when a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. why did he appear today?

>> it is a good question. it is legally hard to understand why he came to this trial, where he has already been found guilty on all of these major counts, and didn't come back when he could have potentially made a difference in the case. as many have noted, this, all of these cases trump is involved with have just become part of his political campaign. i think he is hoping to create this montage of videos of him entering court rooms all over new york and washington, d.c. and georgia to try to say this is the deepest date -- the deep state interfering with me. an hour ago he posted a post on truth social saying, i would have preferred to be in new hampshire i had to be in this court with a trump aide and judge in a political witch hunt. i think the case is hard to make but politically that is what he is doing. geoff: william, thank you.

>> my pleasure. ♪ amna: diabetics across the country will see a break in their out-of-pocket costs for insulin. one of the leading manufacturers of the hormone joined two other major pharmaceutical companies in capping their insulin co-pays at already five dollars. -- $35. this comes of year -- after years of pressure for companies to lower prices. our correspondent has been covering this and she joins me now. insulin price caps follow last years insulin price caps for medicare recipients that took effect. tell us about the impact. >> what took effect this month was that the company followed

suit with eli lilly and others to implement this cap on insulin co-pays at $35. it took effect january 1. sis after the medicare cap on insulin costs at $35 monthly for people. this is after president biden was pressuring these companies to do this, and after the provisions of the inflation reduction act that he passed with those medicare insulin caps took effect last year. tad context about the impact of this, i want to run through a few of the numbers about insulin in the united states. around 8.4 million diabetics need to inject insulin to survive according to the american diabetes association. the three major manufacturers, sanofi, notable nordics and eli lilly, make up more than 90% of the insulin market. medicare provisions in the inflation reduction act mean one

point 7 million medicare beneficiaries stand to benefit from that for $35 monthly co-pay cap on the insulin. that shows the significance of what has been happening. geoff: millions of people -- amna: millions of people. are there people who are still left out of cover? >> this could impact many people but the difference between what the manufacturers did, between the medicare provision, is the medicare provision is automatic. that means someone goes to a pharmacy, they are able to benefit from the $35 co-pay. whereas people who come under private insurance or who are not insured, who don't have insurance and may benefit from what the manufacturers did, it is not automatic. they have to register for programs and it can become very complicated very quickly. i spoke to the policy director at t1 international, they advocate for insulin access and she is fearful manufacturers could decide at any point, we aren't going to provide this

reduction in insulin costs and essentially, what needs to happen is a federal mandate so these manufacturers for uninsured patients, people who have private insurance, can benefit from a cap on their insulin costs. amna: you mentioned the cap for beneficiaries of medicare is part of the inflation reduction act. are there other measures taking effect this year or next we should know about? >> we have seen two big ones, the insulin co-pay cap sand free vaccines. there is 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 20 24, prescription costs of certain drugs for medicare recipients will be capped at $3300 annually. that is especially helpful for people with expensive medications for chronic conditions like arthritis and cancer. 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 and in 2026, those new drug list prices 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 kaf and here is how she described the significance. >> for years, this has been 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. giving medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices is meaningful because there are 60

million people covered by medicare, and that is a lot of leverage. that the federal government now has. amna: when she says for years at 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 concerned about the deficit, she says she -- this has an impact on that. >> the budget office had -- estimated this would save $300 billion over 10 years as a result of the changes in the inflation reduction act. 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. >> that means medicare costs for american taxpayers will also be lower. it will be lower for medicare patients as well. amna: you have been reporting all of this, laying out the

details. do most people understand all of these changes? i guess politically, he is president biden getting credit for this? >> the short answer is no, most people don't understand these changes that are occurring. part of that may be because the inflation reduction act was this big law the president past that includes climate change provisions and another a -- a number of other elements. some democrats say it is hard for average voters to understand. i spoke to a democratic pollster who said even more than a year after the inflation reduction act was passed, voters still don't know what is in it. >> the biden campaign has a ton of good stories, everything from historical environmental legislation to historical infrastructure legislation to historical negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. but again, the challenge is that we are seeing that, the voters, so many of them don't know when they are not connecting the

dots. >> julia echo that. this is something the biden campaign will have to address this year. amna: do we plan to hear more from them? the opening message largely about democracy. will this be a bigger part of their message? >> it will have to be a critical part of their message, particularly if the president is going to close the gap in voters perceptions around the economy. being able to lower health care costs in people's pocketbooks will be part of the 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 and highlight the ability for medicare to negotiate drug prices, but still, they will have to do a lot more than just conventional tv ads. >> you have to flood the box in a way that not even we had to do in 2012 or 2008. the campaign has to lean into social media spaces harder and

in a new way than i think we have ever had to in the past. >> a lot of democratic lawmakers i spoke to said that they want to see biden make this message more in key battleground states as early as possible. the key difference between 2016 and hillary clinton's campaign, and this election cycle, democrats in battleground states say biden's campaign is actually heating their warnings. geoff: thank you so much. ♪ geoff: between the house gop government funding fight and former president trump's hold on the republican party, much has been made of the far rights strong sway over the gop and its agenda. what doesn't get as much attention is the far left's influence on the democratic party. i sat down with joshua green to

discuss just that. it is the focus of his latest book, called "the rebels: elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, alexandria ocasio-cortez and the struggle for a new american politics are co--- politics." joshua green, welcome to the newshour. >> 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? >> 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 in the cohort -- 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. >> 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 governors, 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 memory 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. >> which is really a remarkable evolution. i mean, when i first came to washington as a reporter in 2000, biden was a senator from delaware, 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 in 2020, 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 2008 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, ten, 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? >> 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, uh, 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 economic components. you know, 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 that, 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. >> 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, in general elections that they try and they fail. uh, 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, who kind of code as more moderate and more centrist, but who still pick 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. >> 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. >> despite having a handful of counselors, a school psychologist and a social worker on staff, andy farle, 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. >> 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. >> they created a local chapter of the national, student-led mental health support network called the hope squad. >> does anyone want to share about some of the positives? >> 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 sophmore 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. >> 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. >> eklund works to find solutions to 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. >> 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. -- can't provide such services

to students in need. 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 through 12 schools around the country. >> 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. >> 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. >> one of representative vining's bills would increase 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. >> 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 been provided by >> consumer cellular, this is sam. this is a pocket dial. thought i would let you know 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 innovations in education, democratic engagement and the debt -- advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. and with 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. this is pbs newshour west from w eta studios in washington and our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

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