did also lay a lot of the blame at the feet of the branch davidians as well. well, i should note here that both the 1993 and the 1995 waco hearings are available to watch online at. did the congressional hearings impact law enforcement or anything? yes, it forced them. i think it forced the fbi and atf and other federal law enforcement agencies to kind of review their tactics and change the way they did things, especially in a raid involving armed weapons. because, like i mentioned, there have been several incidents of this type before waco. and so i think the feds basically changed the way they did business on these things after waco and especially after the oklahoma city bombing, which, of course, on the second anniversary of the waco fire. so that also caused a reevaluation of how the federal government did things when it came to law enforcement. do you think there can be a direct line or some type of line drawn between oklahoma city,

ruby ridge, january six and the waco events of 93? oh, very much so. it's still with us today. i mean, we didn't realize this at the time, at least. i certainly didn't. but it was the vanguard of an anti-government movement that's with us. the of course, the gun issues are still with us, but a lot of a lot of what we saw on january six, 2021, the trump protests of the election a lot of those folks are come from this conspiracy minded conspiracy minded milieu that was part and parcel of what happened at waco. so so many of the issues that the raid raised at the hearings, raised are still with us today in the political sphere. now, here's more from author jeff quinn on the lessons of waco. until all, we start using history properly. where keep terrible tragedy from becoming ongoing failure by really paying attention to the facts and not the mythology. that's only what we're going to

start to get a handle on things, folks, because it's just it's still coming more and more. more. and the only way to stop it is to see where it started and try to learn from that. and i still think we can. and finally, david jackson of usa today, what do you think the legacy of waco is. it's a good question. it showed that there are there are people out there who really are fearful of the federal government to conspiracy theorists. if you really feel like the federal government is out to get them for whatever reason, whether it's over gun ownership or religious belief or anything else. and it's it was it was it was a leading indicator of this anti-government that we still see in politics today leading up to and including the election of president trump and its continued popular with many of these folks. i think that's the real legacy of waco for me. david jackson usa today,

formerly with the dallas morning news. thank you for appearing on congress. >> watch the conclusion of our american history tv series cong investigates, exploring major investigation bus the u.s., house and -- di the u.s. house and senate. we'll see historic footage from those periods and we'll investigate key congressional hearings. in 1994, top tobacco industry testified before the house that they didn't believe nicotine was addictive. two years laters they found themselves under investigation for lying under oath. watch congress investigates, friday night at 10:00 eastern on c-span.

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discuss 2024. and campaign 2024 media coverage. join in the conversation live at 7:00 eastern friday morning on c-span, c-span now our free mobile app or online at c-span.org. >> hamas leader yahya sinwar who was the apparent mastermind behind the october 7 attack has been killed in an israeli military operation. pridt biden reacted to the news in a stateme reads in part there,'s now an opportunity forheay after without hamas per and for a political is thelement that provides a better futureor israelis an palestinians alike. yahya sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle. that obstacle no longer insists.

cam la harris also remarked on what happened. here's what she had to say vice president harris: today yahya sinwar the leader o hamas is dead and justice has been served and the united states, israel and the entire world are better off as a result. sinwar was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people including the victims of

october 7 and hostages killed in gaza. he had american blood on his hands. , to i can only hope that the families of the victims of hamas feel a sense and measure of relief. sinwar was the mastermind of october 7, the deadliest day for the jewish people since the holocaust. a terrorist attack that killed 1200 innocent people and included horrific sexual violence and more than 250 hostages taken into gaza including seven americans living and deceased who remain in captivity. received -- deceased who remained in captivity. a terrorist attack that triggered a devastating war in a war that has led to unconscienable suffering of many palestinians and greaterriness

stake in the middle east in the past year, american special operations and intelligence personnel have worked closely with the israeli counter parts to locate and track sinwar and other hamas leaders. i commend tl say, to any terrorist who kills americans, threatens the american people or threatens our troops or our interests, know this -- we will always bring you to justice. israel has a right to defend itself and the threat hamas poses to israel must be eliminated. today there is clear progress toward that goal. hamas isn't decimated and its leadership is eliminated -- is decimated and its leadership is eliminated. this moment it's us an opportunity to finally end the

war in gaza and it must end such that israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in gaza ends and the palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination. and it is time for the day after to begin. without hamas and power -- in power. we will not give up on these goals and i will always work to create a future of peace, dignity and security for all. i think you all. -- i thank you all. >> a state department spokesman briefs reporters after the death of yahya sinwar. his death was confirmed by

israel. mr. sinwar who had been in hiding over the past year is believed to be the architect of the october 7th attack on israel. state department for today's press briefing. live >> yahya sinwar the leader of hamas who was killed in an israeli military operation in gaza yesterday was a brutal, vicious terrorist responsible for the death of american citizens israelis, and civilians for more than 30 countries across the world. his decision and it was very much his decision to watch the terrorist attacks of october 7 unleash add year of tragedy in

the middle east. 1200 people murdered on october 7. 254 hostages kidnapped and hauled into gaza including children, infants, elderly and men and women of all ages. more than 40,000 people dead in gaza, many of them civilians. that is the blood soaked legacy that yahya sinwar leaves behind. he didn't just launch this conflict but for the past year has refused the efforts of the united states and our partners to end it, refused to return home the hostage who have been separated from their families for more than a year, refused to agree to a cease-fire proposal endorsed by the united nation and countries around the world and who in recent weeks refused to negotiate at all on a cease-fire and into the war. there are 101 hostage that is remain in gaza including seven

americans. and of course, there are two million palestinian who is continue to suffer the consequences of sinwar's decision to endanger their lives. the pass that sinwar wanted in the region, death, destruction, instability, chaos is a path that we know the people of the region reject. the horrors of the past year cannot be the future. and they do not need to be the future. it is time to chart a different path. so over the days ahead, the united states will redouble our efforts to return the hostages home to bring an tend to this war, to alleviate the suffering of the palestinian people and to allow the people of gaza to begin to rebuild their lives with that, matt. matt: ok. i'll stewart this obviously. but please don't quote without allowing me or someone else to ask about the other very big story of the day, which is of course, the new u.n. partition

proposal for western sahara. ok. so when you say that over the course -- over the coming -- over the days ahead the u.s. will redouble your efforts. how exactly is that going to happen? >> two things about that. first of all, as you know, we've been trying to achieve a cease-fire that returns the hostages home, alleviates the suffering of the palestinian people and ends the war for many months now. and the chief goal to reaching that cease-fire has been sinwar who has refused to negotiate in recent weeks and has said no time and time again. that obstacle has been remove. can't guarantee that whoever replaces him will change that. but it is the chief obstacle to getting onele we're going to continue to work with our partners to find an tend to the war. the secretary while on air force

one with the president called the prime minister of qatar who has been one of our two mediators, other mediators working to reach entendre the war, he called the foreign minister of saudi arabia to talk about the path forward and he'll be having additional contacts in the days ahead. >> right but what does "redouble your effortses" mean? >> it means to redouble your effort -- i'm not going to -- >> i understand what you want. i want to know what that actually means "redouble"? does that mean you're going to be making twice as many cause. >> we're going to try to push that proposal forward. we now have a different -- well, we don't know who will be on the other end of the negotiating table. it won't be sinwar. zit a very different situation. i don't want to predict too much what our efforts will look like over the course of the day because we are just hours what is a seismic event that changes

the nature of this conflict. but we believe it is an opportunity to try and bring an end to this war and we're determined try to seize that opportunity. >> ok but -- but -- but -- are you going back to a place where -- where you were two or three -- two months ago? because i just the redoubling suggest that you're -- >> from a policy perspective what we want to achieve, we're in the same place. and we're going to continue to try to push forward the same thing we've done with our mediators. >> does that not include changes? >> here's the difference. over the past few weeks there have been no negotiations for an end to the war because sinwar has refused to negotiate. there's been no path to ending this war because sinwar has refused to talk about releasing the hoss or come to a

cease-fire. we now see an opportunitying with being removed to the leadership of hamas and we want to seize that opportunity. >> thanks. >> can you confirm that sinwar died yesterday? >> he was -- so i assume that he died yesterday. so i will leave the israelis to speak to the exact results but it was the result of an operation that they conducted yesterday. i don't believe that he lay where he was brought down for hours and died later. the israelis will speak to that. they will be the ones that can provide any results. >> no confirmation -- >> the operation they carried out was yesterday. i assume that he died instantly or fairly shortly there after but the israelis can speak to that. >> did qatar -- did the phillip qatar after the secretary spoke to them, do you know if they know who hamas's successor is

going to be? >> i don't think that we can say with certainty. hamas has a process. we saw that process after the death of pinea. i can only expect that they will go through that process. people can speculate about who the next leader will be. but i don't think we can prewith any degree of certainty. what we would hope is that whoever the next leader of hamas is, he will look at what has happened over the past year and look at the suffering that hamas's action have brought on the palestinian people who they aim to represent whose cause they aim to advance and will look and decide that they ought to pursue a path forward. they ought to pursue a path that isn't one of death and destruction and chaos and harm to israelis or palestinian civilians but one that the

united states has presented, qatar has presented that other regions have presented and endorsed that's what we'll be purke for >> you communicating that to -- indirectly to -- you know, to the remaining leadership there? are you communicating that the united states hope and what you're pushing for? >> i'm not going to communicate about what our mediators know. we'll be speaking to qatar. we don't know who the other person on the other end of the phone will be. what we do know is that the person who had been the chief obstacle to moving forward with an end to the war is now is no longer was. >> i know you hope this is a negotiation for a cease-fire and return of the hostages but a little more macro, what abouta for a two-state solution?

>> of course -- of course that is the goal that we want to see. that's been our policy for some time. we ultimately want to see a path forward that allows palestinians and gaza to rebuild their lives to rebuild their neighborhoods, to have security, to have palestinian-led governance that they choose not by the outside world. to be free from a brutal terrorist organization as opposed to how they've been living in gaza for the past couple of decades and ultimately a palestinian state where gaza is reunited with the west bank. >> is that a lot of hope and no chance or have you seen any -- i don't know, indication that is this could create an opening? >> i do want to just step back and -- and i think it will be an answer i give to a lot of questions like that today, which is we're just hours after a very

significant event. i think we're going to have to -- to watch and see how things settle before people can make prediction about how the days, weeks and months ahead will play out. one thing we do know for certain is that the world is a better place with sinwar gone from it. and it gives us an opportunity that we did have as long as heddles shot for hamas. what that will mean, we'll have to see in the days ahead. >> you said that this was an obstacle. on the secretary's last visit to israel he said very publically that he was onboard with the cease-fire plan with a proposal. is that still the -- is that still the perception by the united states the israelis are completely onboard with what was on the table? >> they had accepted the bridging proposal if you remember what else he said at the time, there were still remaining pieces o that deal that needed to be agreed between hamas and israel. so we had gone significantly

down the road in first getting an agreement on the framework. getting an agreement on the bridging and there are still a number of things that needed to be greed to. and israel was going to face tough decisions in getting there and we're going to push israel to make those tough decisions. what happened in the interim after that visit is that hamas just walked away from the negotiating table. the work we wanted to do to bridge those final differences we couldn't do because you didn't have two part norse talk. to >> there is the issues of the philadelphia corridor and all. that is it the impression of the united states that there needs to to push the israelis harder to get to the blais the u.s. wants them to be? >> of course, there will be tough decision that is the israelis will need to make to get an agreement to end this war. we have made clear that we will have candid direct conversations about the need to make those tough decisions.

but we weren't in a place to do that when you have no one at the ere end of the table willing to even agree to negotiate. so you can't tell the israelis they have to make tough decisions when sip war is sitting on the other side saying i'm not going to negotiate the end of this at all. we're now in a different place. what that means going forward, too early to tell but we don't believe it's an opportunity to pursuit. >> obviously, the -- we talk about gaza, of course, there's lebanon. the war has expanded from where we were a few months ago. when the secretary and the president are saying to end the conflict does that mean for lebanon? >> we want to see a diplomatic resolution end. there are still hezbollah forces in close proximity of the israel border, the border between israel and lebanon who still not only maintain the capability to launch terrorist attacks against

israel but are still launching rockets to israel. so it is a different conflict and a different space. we have never thought the two conflicts ought to be link together but there are nose the region who think the two of them are link. we want to see a diplomatic solution we want to see an end to the fighting there. we want to see it end in a way that guarantees the implementation of 1701 so hezbollah actually withdraw north of the river. there are separate tracks and is separate organizations and we'll pursue them differently >> you mentioned that there have been talked about the secretary and others. you mentioned he was on the phone with the israeli specifically since -- since it came in. >> we've had a number of conversations. they notified us early this morning that they believed they

had killed sinwar but they wanted to conduct testing to confirm. we had a number of conversations -- testing to confirm we had a number of conversations to try to confirm that. and we'll have a number of conversations. the president plans to speak to prime minister netanyahu in the near future. >> you just said that the israelis notified the u.s. early this morning that they believe it was sinwar. can you give us more detail is? did that notification dom through this building or the pentagon? >> it came in multiple channels. there were people who were notified. there were people in our embassy who were notified. i expected that people in the pentagon and people in the white house were informed. we have multiple channels of communication the governor of israel and we were told that there were multiple channels this morning. >> and you also -- you and other people have been saying now it's time to bring an tend to this

war between hamas and israel. but we've been watching as israel has been conducting this counterterrorism operations in gaza because they said hamas is reconstituting. if the time is now to bring an tend to this conflict, should they stop with the counter terrorism operations? >> so israel achieved an incredibly important strategic objective today. but there are other strategic objectives remained. first and foremost the return of the hostages, including seven americans who remain held hostage. so we want to see those hostages return home. i know israel wants to see those hostages return home. it's important that they return to bring those hostages home. but ultimately, i want to see that they take the strategic objectives to be established but they accomplished others in degrading hamas's military capabilities to the extent that

in no sense could they launch an attack today that looked anything like the attack of last october 7. they are in no way a functioning military force the way that they were on october 7. though, they still maintain significant ability to wreak havoc and launch terrorist attacks. what we want from them how they take those strategic objectives and turn that into a victory. from our perspective that means a path forward in gaza that isn't just a military path forward for degrading hamas and continuing to fight hamas fighters over and over and seeing 100 fighter killed and 100 new fighters joined over a death or a month and being in this perpetual cycle to fight on the ground. we want to see a path forward that brings the hostages home and sets the conditions for the

day after where you have reconstruction in gaza. you have actual security in gaza. and you have a political path forward for the people in gaza that is determined by the people in gaza. and so those are the conversations we are going to have with the governor of israel and as well as the other partners. those are the conversations that the secretary started today with his counter parts in qatar and saudi arabia. >> i gets you didn't answer the question as to how the -- i guess you didn't answer the question how the counter terrorism operations fit into that. if you want them to drive fourth an enduring victory, you said should they stop the counter terrorism operations because hamas has already been dismant hasn'ted to such a significant degree? >> hamas still does pose a threat. and israel still has a right to take on that threat. and they still have a right to try and put pressure on hamas and try to free the hostage that is remain there. but ultimately, we think the path forward is not just to

continue military operations that they will have to repeat over and over again because in our judgment and in the judgment of our partners in the region and our partners around the world, and -- a path forward that doesn't include the reconstruction and security and rebuilding in a political path forward in gaza is not a path that will provide an tend to the war. and that's what we want to see ultimately is an end to the war. that's not something that we can tell you that we'll have an agreement with israel or with the partners in the region. but it's something we'll continue to pursue. >> do you have an early assessment -- given that you've been in regular contact with israel? do you have an idea where netanyahu stands on this right now?

is he going to be in lockstep with the united states to end this conflict? >> so the president is going to talk to the prime minister in the coming days. i think it's appropriate to wait for that conversation before making an assessment. >> yeah that makes sense. the day after plan, there have been many conversations in this building about when you guys are going to release that, that has been long worked on in this building . is the time now? >> i don't want to preview any announcements but we want to seize the opportunity created by the death of sinwar. and that means an opportunity to end the war. and it means an opportunity to get to the day after. and so we have been working on this for months. it's not just happening in this building but happening in conversations with our partners first and foremost in the region but also with partners around the world. we do look to push those plans forward in the days ahead.

i'm not going to preview new specific announcement or timing. we're only hours after what is a fairly seismic event but it's something we want to pursue aggressively in the days ahead. >> thank you. >> to follow-up on sean's question. he said nothing in the middle east is related. how can you link the seize fire in gaza to lebanon? >> that's the point we have made. we have never believed that the two conflicts are linked together. and you're pursuing when you look at diplomatic relations with the state of lebanon and trying to find a cease-fire agreement in gaza. of course, hezbollah linked the two conflicts even when we did not believe they were linked. what we believe is stability be -- brings about stability. if you