♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on pbs news weekend, race for the senate. the latest from georgia ahead of tuesday's runoff election. then... a new lawsuit against the department of veterans affairs over decades of discrimination agnst black military vets. conley: it was totally a, you know, disgrace to me and my family in the fact that we were denied benefits that was rightfully entitled to. geoff: and... a "brief but spectacular" take on student loans and rethinking what it means to be in debt. all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." ♪

>> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ and friends of "the newshour." ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station fr viewers like you. thank you.

geoff: good evening, it is good to be with you. we start in georgia, where early voting ended yesterd in the state senate runoff election. the contest between democratic senator raphael warnock and his publican challenger herschel walker. neither won a majority of votes last month, which forced a runoff. georgians set a new record for single day early in person turnout. laura is the ground. give us a sense of how warnock and walker have shifted their messages, if at all, in this stage of the race, to reach potentially new voters. laura: walker is focused on trying to win over those 81,000 voters that voted for the third-party libertarian candidate in the general election and he's been talking

about that. he also has been focused on not really a more moderate message. he's talking a lot about culture wars, equating voting in this election campaign with whether or not georgians want to go to heaven or hell. he talks about gender identity and transgender people being allowed to play in different sports. that's what some of his speeches focus on, which doesn't sound like it is trying to reach moderate voters or even went over the voters that voted for republican governor brian kemp, who has been recently trying to boost him in the runoff election, a change from the general election. as for senator warnock, he has been focused on health care, also making a democracy pitch to voters, telling them republicans were trying to prevent voters from voting weekend early voting in his campaign along with other organizations sued and ultimately one that.

his campaign is feeling bullish. geoff: there has been record-breaking turnout. do democrats see that as a good sign for the warnock campaign? what are officials saying about the long lines that have greeted early voters across georgia? laura: democrats do view that as a good sign for them, headed into the runoff. they feel the more people voting, the more likely warnock could prevail. they also feel that enthusiasm is not lacking on their side. officials in georgia, state officials are saying, have said the long lines were always going to occur and they are a sign there is an voter suppression. black led organizations that are focused on mobilizing voters that i have spoken to while i've been out here disagree. they say the long lines ultimately make it harder for voters to vote. some voters have been waiting in line up to two hours to try to cast a ballot in early voting.

they also say the shortened time frame by the restrictive voting law passed last year, instead of having a month to register new voters for the runoff, they were not able to register any new voters ahead of this runof versus two years ago. they also say the shortened timeframe went from having three weeks of early voting to basically one week of early voting, and all of that makes it harder for voters to cast a ballot. geoff: on a separate note, as you know, this past week at the democratic national committee voted to adopt president biden's recommendation to overhaul the 2024 presidential primary calendar. that slingshots south carolina into the leadoff position, followed later by new hampshire, nevada, georgia, and michigan. drawing on your experience, give us a sense of the rationale behind the decision and how it is being received democratic officials. laura: i was in iowa during the

2020 primary. it was chaotic and a madhouse and that really pushed a lot of democrats to vocally call for iowa to no longer be the first caucus for the democratic presidential primary. also pushing that is the fact a lot of democrats want a state that is more reflective of what they say is there voting base. more diverse that has alack and brown voters, that are more populous in those states. that's why they seem to be going with south carolina is the first state. ultimately we will not know the final decision, the final vote will not occur by the d&c until early 20 -- dnc until early 23. local organizers would love for georgette to go earlier in the calendar but there could be complicationsecause of the fact that the dnc will have to find a way to work with the gop

state legislature in georgia and the republicanovernor in your junk, to move georgia -- in georgia, to move your job in the calendar. also new hampshire is saying vocally they ultimately are going to still try to be the first primary in the calendar because their state law gives him the power to do that. geoff: good point. laura in atlanta for us tonight ahead of georgia's runoff election tuesday. thank you. in the day's other headlines... former president donald trump today took to his social media platform, calling for the termination of the u.s. constitution toverturn the 2020 election, citing conspiracy theories about election fraud. the twice-impeached former president has repeatedly called for his reinstatement, but this marks the first time that mr. trump has said the constitution should be suspended so he can seize power. state and federal judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits presented by the former

president and his allies challenging the results of the 2020 race. according to a number of early polls, mr. tmp is the likely favorite for his party's nomination in 2024. china is showing signs of easing its strict, zero-covid policy after rare displays of dissent across the country. in several major chinese cities, including beijing, a negative covid test will no longer be required to enter public spaces, or to use public transit. but officials there say the zero-covid policy remains intact, as public health officials report tens of thousands of new cases in just the last 24 hours. iranian state media today said that construction has started on a new nuclear power plant. the announcement comes as tensions between washington and tehran remain high over sweeping sanctions imposed after the u.s. pulled out of the iran nuclear deal. meantime, iran is also downplaying the human toll of the widespread, anti-government protests that have rocked the country for months.

state media today claimed that only 200 people have died since the protests began. but human rights organizations in iran believe the number of dead and detained is much higher. cascading lava from the world's largest active volcano, mauna loa, is creeping closer to a major highway on hawaii's big island. officials say the oozing wall of molten roccould reach the inouye highway sometime next week. it's the quickest route connecting the two sides of the island, and if it's rendered impassable, officials say it could add hours to commutes. mike: we have such limited roadways on this island and any time we lose a roadway, it just shifts all that traffic to somewhere else. geoff: geologists say that mauna loa's eruption could continue for another one to teeks. and, t u.s. men's soccer team's hopes of a world cup title ended today, falling to the favored dutch, 3-to-1. the men's team had not advanced past the first knockout round

since 2002, and had lost or tied all 12 of its games against european opponents at the world cup since then. team usa can now set its sights on the 2026 fifa world cup, when they will play before home crowds. the u.s. will join mexico and canada to host that tournament. save the date. still to come on "pbs news weekend"... black veterans sue the va over decades of discrimination. and... a "brief but spectacular" perspective on student debt. ♪ >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. geoff: the u.s. government has discriminated against african-american military veterans dating back decades, disproportionately rejecting disability claims om black veterans at a much higher rate than white veterans.

that's according to a new lawsuit filed in federal court this past week by yale law school's veterans legal services clinic. the group filed the suit on behalf of conley monk jr., a vietnam war veteran whose va benefits were denied for nearly 50 years. he's joining me now along with richard brookshire, who served in the u.s. army before co-founding the black veterans project. welcome to you both. richard: thank y. conley: happy to be here. geoff: and, mr. monk, you enlisted in november 1968. you served in vietnam, but you were wrongfully denied an honorable discharge, which meant that you received no va benefits. the va denied your applications for education, housing, and disability benefits before finally agreeing in decemb 2020 that you were, in fact, eligible all along. how did the lack of va benefits affect your life? conley: it really damaged me by this, not letting my family receive any form of benefits.

i couldn't receive any benefits, and neither could they, so my kids was not entitled to educational benefits, which they should have been entitled to. they could have also got some sort of stipend while they was going to school. also the fact that i couldn't even get my job back. i worked for the va when i left to go in the military and i came home, i couldn't get my job back. i joined. i did not get drafted, you know. so i wanted to go to fight for my country to be involved in the vietnam war. i felt that i was totally robbed of my rightful dues when i came back from vietnam. i served honorably in vietnam. i was involved in a lot of different combat actions. it was totally a, you know,

disgrace to me and my family in the fact that we were denied benefits that i was rightfully entitled to. geoff: richard brookshire, you created the black veterans project, which is a nonprofit that researches the inequities that black veterans face. after you struggled to get the resources you needed when you came back from afghanistan. give us a sense of your story and why do you think these hurdles have persisted across generations? richard: yeah, i served as a combat medic for seven years -- four those on active duty, three of them in the new york state national guard, and d a difficult ansiti out of the military that i wasn't actually anticipating. i wasn't taken seriously by the va. so i found myself, unfortunately, on the other side of a suicide attempt. and it just so happens that after that attempt i started to really engagthe black veterans community, but i also started to engage, like, what are the disparities? like, i mean, i'm living with them, i'm starting to see them,

but, like, getting a better sense of the numbers was kind of like the first instinct for me, and so we went to yale and said, hey, like, you know, we want the most contemporary data to kind of look at are there disparities in disability compensation? because i've heard about the disparities of the gi bill at the turn of world war ii. i think conley is a perfect example of how dishonorable discharges have perpetuated, locking many black vets even to this very day out of access to their benefits. geoff: and mr. monk, to richard's point about the sort of generational aspect of this, you come from a family of service members. your father fought in a segregated unit during world war ii. your siblings were also in the armed forces. and you make the point that you and ur siblings could have gone to college potentially if your father had gotten the benefits that he applied for and was denied back in the 1940s. conley: yes. and, you know, it continued, you know, after my father. my daughter, my baby girl, she

had the struggle, to work and go to school and she owes $100,000 on a student loan at this present date. she's now a principal in one of the major high schools, but, you know, we we suffered. we sustained an injury and we continued to. and i think it snowballed down to like my grandkids, you know, my grandkids, they would have had a better chance of going to school if they would have been entitled to the moneys that their mother could have got to go to school to help them out. and not only that, the housing benefits. you know, we was denied housing benefits where i could not get a g.i. housing law. my father had to work two full time jobs in order to provide a living situation for us.

so, yeah, it really damaged my family, me and my family. geoff: well, we reached out to the va to get a statement in response to this lawsuit. and without addressing the merits of the suit, we got this statement, part of which reads this way -- "secretary mcdonough has made clear that delivering world class, timely, equitable care and benefits to all veterans is our top priority at va. throughout history, there have been unacceptable diarities in both va benefits decisions and military discharge status due to racism, which have wrongly left black veterans without access to va care and benefits. we are actively working to right these wrongs and we will stop at nothing to ensure that all black veterans get the va services they have earned and deserve." richard brookshire, the va is acknowledging that, yes, there's a problem. i guess the question is what should be done about it? richard: fostering equity is great and noble, but it's not redress. i think this administration has been really supportive.

but i also think that there's been decades to do something about this. we're 75 years out next year looking at the fully integrated force that we have now. it's a time for a reckoning and it's a time to account for the history and the ills that have been done at the hands of the va. geoff: mr. monk, what are you hoping that this lawsuit filed on your behalf achieves? conley: well, i hope it opens up the door for other vets to not be able to be blocked, just like i was -- where they can go ahead and get their disability benefits without being discriminated against. reparations and compensation is what i think should occur. geoff: conley monk jr. and richard brookshire, i thank you both for your time and for your insights. ♪this week the supreme court

announced it will hear a case that will decide whether the biden administration can broadly cancel student loans. tonight we hear from one of the millions of americans affected by student debt. astra taylor is a writer, film maker and political organizer. as a young adult, she says she was forced to default on her student loans, prompting her to join the occupy wall street movement back in 2011. since then, she has been spking and teaching about debt. taylor shares her "brief but spectacular" take. astra: it is a couple of years after the 2008 fincial crisis and i was struggling to pay my student loans and i defaulted, i could not pay. i remember getting this phone call and the person on the other end saying you defaulted on your loans and that means your principal is going to go up by 19%, so my balance ballooned. your credit score is shot. now i owe even more.

at that moment i felt really alone and overwhelmed by my situation. ♪ i grew up in athens, georgia. i was told you need to get into a fancy school or you will not have an opportunity in life. at 17, i enrolled at brown university. and yeah, at 17, i had to pay for. i vividly remember being in a big auditorium with what felt like dozens or hundreds of other teenagers, signing the loan papers, taking out loans to go to school. when i defaulted, i felt overwhelmed, ashamed, and what i didn't realize at the time was how common my situation was. now know, i know that two thirds of americans are in debt, that 45 million people have student loans, one million default every year. 50% of americans struggle with

medical bills. i did not know that then. i started to realize one day when i went occupy wall street. i realized, everyne here is in debt. that was a powerful moment. individually, being in debt can be overwhelming, but when you come together with other debtors, it can make you powerful. there is a saying we like to quote, if you owe the bank $100, that is your problem, but if you owe the bank $100 million, that is the bank's problem. together, we own the proverbial bank, right? that's the kind of power debtors can wield when they realize their debts are someone else's assets. the debt collective is the first debtors union. it is a form of organization people can join to wield power collectively. just like workers come together in the workplace to demand higher wages and benefits, better treatment.

our idea is that debtors also need to come togetr. many of theebts we hold today did not exist a few generations ago. a few generations ago, college was close to free. medical costs were not so exorbitant. debt is a systemic problem. a systemic problem requires a systemic solution. we are taught to think that debt is our fault, but the fact is you are not in debt because you live beyond your means, you are in debt because you are denie the means to live. i am astra taylor an this is my brief but spectacular take on debt abolition. ♪ geoff: finally tonight... some happy news to share. we have a new member of the pbs news weekend a newshour family. our colleague ali rogin and her husband, josh, welcomed baby anne at the end of november.

we are overjoyed for ali and her family, who says they can't get enough of baby anne's chubby cheeks, blue eyes, and full head of light brown hair. ali will be away for the next few months, but don't worry, she'll be back with more of her excellent reporting next year. congratulations, ali. online right now -- a look at the controversial history of georgia's runoff elections ahead of tuesday's vote. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's "pbs news weekend" for tonight. on sunday, we look ahead to next week's supreme court hearings on redistricting, and a clash between free speech and civil rits. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your saturday with us . ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- ♪ 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. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ ♪

♪

show is brought to you by pure encapsulations, dedicated for over 30 years to pure ingredients free from unnecessary additives and many common allergens, and backed by verifiable science to help achieve optimal wellness. thrive market is on a mission to make healthy living easy and affordable for everyone, sustainable brands, and have everything delivered to your front door - we are in the midst of a scientific medical revolution. and it is changing everything we understand about disease. it turns out the number one killer in the world isn't smoking or war, but food. or should i say, food-like substances.