♪ amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on "the newshour" tonight... a possible turning point? kevin mccarthy is still short of the votes he needs to become house speaker, but an emerging deal helps him chip away at the house republican holdouts. amna: hiring slows in december amid a worker shortage that presents significant challenges for employers. geoff: and david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the second anniversary of the capitol insurrection and the scars left on the nation. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> pediatric surgeon.

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informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and friends of "the newshour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: welcome to "the -- amna: welcome to "the newshour." after four days and 13 rounds us ogre t butasll faedeleca ofker. f:vothng, while more than a don republicans switched their votes to support congressman kevin mccarthy today, a handful of hard-right members refuse to back down.

as lisa desjardins reports, mccarthy is hopeful he will soon be able to convince some of those holdouts to back his bid for speaker. lisa: after four days of counting votes... >> the house will be in order. lisa: dealmaking on the floor... and behind closed doors... there is still no speaker of the house. but there was some big momentum for kevin mccarthy. rep. mccarthy: we're going to make progress. we're going to shock you. lisa: a total of 15 mbers who previously voted againstim changed their votes. >> kevin mccarthy. [applause] lisa: but he still didn't receive enough support to take the gavel. the changed votes came after mccarthy agreed to back some of his opponents' demands that would weaken the power of the speakership. >> for too long minority rights have been stepped over. too few people are making too many decisions for the american people in ways that undermine

the health and wellbeing of the this institution, the country and american people. that has a chance to change today. lisa: mccarthy himself says the battle could be resolved as early as tonight. >> you so we made some good progress and we will come back tonight and i believe at that time we will have some votes to finishes this once and for all. lisa: some republicans frustrated by the now handful still blocking him walked off the floor as florida congressman matt gaetz railed against mccarthy. >> mr. mccarthy doesn't have the votes today, he will not have the votes tomorrow, and he will not have the votes next week, next month, next year. lisa: that's the question -- will the remaining hard-liners keep that up or will enough of them reverse themselves? meantime, without a speaker, congressional business has been halted on several fronts. members are still not sworn in, so some constituent services are left opause. they also cannot recei national security briefings. >> this is obviously a once in a

hundred year earthquake for the house of representatives from a political perspective. lisa: brad fitch is the president of the nonprofit congressional management foundation. he says the house can't fully function until there's a speaker. brad: the congress needs two functioning political parties. america does not have a parliamentary one party system. the founders gave us a system that requires both parties to be functioning. so a dysfunctional republican party isn't just bad for the republican party. it's bad for the democrats. it's bad for america, and it's bad for the congress. lisa: house democrats continue to remain a united front, admonishing republicans for the stalemate. >> these four days have tested house republicans' ability to govern and they have failed. lisa: the house took a break but they are coming back tonight. geoff: what is expected to happen at 10:00 p.m. eastern? lisa: everybody get your popcorn

because my reporting is the expectations are the republicans will select a speaker and it will be kevin mccarthy. not only that, but the plan right now -- anything could change -- but the plan right now is to elect the speaker, swear and the rest of the members of the house and pass the rules package before they go home for the weekend. geoff: let's talk more about the rules package because mccarthy started turning the tides in his favor after he agreed to those concessions with his republican detractors. tell us more about the ones that would limit the authority of a house speaker. lisa: this is very interesting stuff and we will be talking about it perhaps for two years. top of the list, mr. mccarthy has agreed to allow any single member of the republican conference to call a motion to vacate, a motion to challenge his own speakership. that existed before, in the last few speakership's did not. in addition, he has also agreed to allow more freedom caucus

members on committees, like the rules committee. his opposition largely came from the freedom caucus. he has agreed to bring more votes to the floor. that's something he said in the past, he wants an open process. more amendments and chances for house members to put something out there that may win or lose. but that is a strain on any speaker's power. one of the speakers authorities is to determine what has the muster to pass the house. here is saying i will let many more ideas come in, but it diminishes the speaker. geoff: tell us about these rules changes that would change the way the house handles spending. lisa: you know i am a spending nerd. this is important. it will matter a great deal to how our government operates. first on the top of the list is mr. mccarthy has agreed to allowing open amendments. in me -- any amendment to spending bills. the debt ceiling increase, which we know will need to happen

sometime in the spring, must be accompanied by some sort of budget reform. there's no firm details on what that means yet. in addition, they are requiring the house pass spending caps with a budget. that could include caps that could affect defense spending, that will be a debate for republicans. finally, no omnibus or giant appropriations bills. i think what we will see is a rigorous house floor, but when they try and get together with the democratic led senate on some of these ideas, in the fall, we will have real issues. geoff: lisa, you and our politics team working around-the-clock this week. thank you. lisa: thank you. ♪ geoff: today marks two years since the january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol, an anniversary thatas marked today in ceremonies in front of the capitol building itself and at the white house.

♪ almost exactly two years to the moment that rioters breached the u.s. capitol, president biden awarded the presidential citizens medal to 14 americans , all involved in resisting efforts to overturn the election or in physically defending the u.s. capitol that day. president biden: our democracy held because we the people, as the constitution refers to us, we the people did not flinch. we honor a remarkable group of americans who embodied the best before, during and after january 6, 2021. geoff: the medal is the second highest civilian award given to those who "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." the parents of late capitol police officer brian sicknick accepted his medal. he suffered multiple strokes after the riot, one of five police officers to die in the days and months after january

6. capitol police officer eugene goodman was alsoonored. he single-handedly lured rioters away from the entrance to the senate chambers as lawmakers were evacuating. d.c. metropolitan police officer daniel hodges suffered injuries after rioters pinned him against a revolving door and beat him with his own tong, -- own baton, leaving him maskless and bleeding. the president recognized election officials and poll workers who rejected lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. former arizona speaker of the house rusty bowers resisted efforts from fellow republicans to overturn the election results. he lost his seat in the state house last august to a republican challenger. ruby freeman and her daughter shaye moss both worked as election workers in fulton county, georgia. they described in emotional testimony to the january 6th committee how they faced a barrage of harassment and threats after former president donald trump targeted them with false accusations of fraud.

>> it's turned my life upside down. i don't want to go anywhere. i second-guess everything i do. it has affected my life in a major way. in every way. all because of lies, and me dog my job, the same thing i've been doing forever. geoff: the white house calling the honorees heroes and defenders of democracy who demonstrated courage in a national moment of peril. earlier in the day, congressional democrats held a moment of silence on the steps of the capitol. the event led by former speaker , of the house nancy pelosi and new democratic leader hakeem jeffries. mr. jeffries: we are gathered here to honor their memory and acknowledge with deep gratitude the tremendous bravery of the hundreds of officers who defended us at this citadel of democracy that fateful day. geoff: the moment of silence

lasting 140 seconds, one second for each officer injured during the attack. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. the last jobs report for 2022 shows the u.s. economy cooled somewhat in december. the labor department says the economy added a net 223,000 jobs -- still healthy, but the lowest in 2 years. the unemployment rate fell to 3 .5%, the lowest in 53 years. and average hourly pay rose 4.6% from a year earlier, but that was the slowest pace in 16 months. buffalo bills' player damar hamlin is breathing on his own and able to talk, after doctors removed his breathg tube. it marks the latest progress in hamlin's recovery -- 4 days after his heart stopped during a game. at a virtual news conference, bills coach sean mcdermott said teammates spoke to hamlin today for the first time in a video conference.

coach mcdermott: he made the heart symbol probably more than anything and gave em a thumbs up. somewhere in the midst of that and it was a little bit hard to hear, as you imagine, but he said iove you boys and of course that got the guys. stephanie: hamlin is still listed in critical condition at the university of cincinnati medical center. asylum seekers from cuba, nicaragua and haiti ran into new restrictions today along the u.s. southern border. the biden administration's policy change sends them back to mexico if they cross illegally. crossings in arizona were quieter than usual overnight. people who arrived at the border said they were stunned to hear of the new rules. mexican authorities are working to restore order in the northern city of culiacan after drug cartel gunmen turned it into a war zone. the violence erupted thursday when federal police captured the son of joaquin guzman -- the imprisoned head of the sinaloa cartel.

gunmen burned vehicles to set up roadblocks, battled government troops and fired on planes at the international airport. at least 29 people were killed. northern california caught a break in the weather today as the second powerful storm this week subsided. piers and oceanfront homes were hit by hurricane-force winds, heavy rain and monster waves on wednesday and thursday. flooded roads left people in santa cruz wading in water and wondering about recovery. sean: you know, we don't have a huge lot of resources for something like that. it's going to take weeks easily, if not months. because there's a house down at the end of the private neighborhood that completely lifted off its foundation and it's sitting in the middle of the street blocking the rest of the neighborhood off. stephanie: the storm was blamed for at least 2 deaths and major power outages. to make matters worse, the week's third storm is expected to roll in tonight. in ukraine, a russian-declared truce for the orthodox christmas

holiday took affect despite air raid sirens and sporadic fighting. in kyiv, people ventured into the streets to run errands for christmas eve celebrations. but officials and citizens alike voiced deep skepticism about the truce. meanwhile, the united states unveiled a $3 billion package of military aid for ukraine, the largest yet. it includes armored vehicles, self-propelled guns and artillery rounds. the supreme court of idaho has ruled that the state constitution does not implicitly endorse the right to an abortion. the court rejected efforts by planned parenthood to block enforcement of a series of new laws. they include a statute that criminalizes most abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy. a federal appeals court today blocks a ban on bump stocks, devices that enable rounds to be fired rapidly from semi-automatic weapons. the ruling says bump stocks do not meet the definition of illegal machine guns under federal law.

the trump administration implemented the ban after the 2017 las vegas massacre that killed dozens of people. and, the environmental protection agency is proposing tougher standards on soot from tailpipes, smokestacks and wildfires. the agency said today that lowering the allowed levels could prevent thousands of premature deaths each year. some environmental groups said the proposal does not go far enough. still to come on the newshour... a journalist and critic of the indian government faces spurious charges designed to silence her... where prosecutions of the trump supporters who attacked the capitol stand two years later... a new project spotlights the work of indigenous american american artists... and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalm at arizona state university. geoff: today's jobs report

signaled good news for those who are worried about a recession and inflation. it also capped a very strong year for the jobs market overall -- more than 4 and a half million new jobs created in 2022. that's the second highest year ever since record-keeping began in 1939. but it still suggests that it's hard to find enough workers for some jobs. economics correspondent paul solman has our report. paul: the final jobs report of 2022 hints that this year's economy may be okay after all. julia: there is nothing to complain about in the december jobs report. paul: zip recruiter jobs maven julia pollak says on top of 223,000 new jobs and a rock bottom unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, the report highlights a key metric that will make the fed happy, though not workers. julia: it showed wage growth moderating, which is exactly what the federal reserve wants to see and which reduces the risk of a recession. paul: because it reduces the danger of continued inflation.

julia: yes, because it reduces the risk of continued inflation and of the fed needing to throw too much cold water on the labor market. paul: in the context of the covid years, pollak says 2022 turns out to have been just right. julia: the december report suggests that 2022 was a goldilocks year in the labor market. paul: a goldilocks year? julia: yes. well, 2020 was much too cold with millions of jobs lost. 2021 was too hot. we added 6.7 million jobs and the result was surging inflation. this year we saw 4.5 million jobs added. so still an enormous number, but not so large that it caused inflation. in fact, inflation moderated and wage growth moderated. paul: but even with an employment report this strong, the labor market remains spandex tight. why? julia: before the pandemic, already there was a downward trend in labor force

participation that was mostly driven by the fact that we have a rapidly aging population. paul: true in canada and europe as well, with myriad job openings. but pollak cites causes peculiar to america. julia: one is the decline in participation among working age men that one doesn't see in other countries. then also labor force participation among women, prime age, working age women is rather, sort of, sluggish and flat, even though it's growing pretty rapidly in other developed countries. paul:-- explanation? julia: the rates of crime, incarceration, which are barriers to employment. another is the increase in the use of drugs like opioids and fentanyl, which are also keeping people out of work. paul: or canada? julia: mostly because other countries have family friendly policies like paid family leave, and the u.s. does not. paul: i've been hearing two other reasons -- the slowdown in

working age immigrants. and for years now, from employers all over this land that young people just aren't , interested in so many of the jobs out there -- trade jobs, face-to-face work, the military. as karen paolucci, head of h.r. at industrial robot maker yushin in rhode island, told me... karen: you can schedule someone for an interview and they don't even come for their interview. paul: and i've heard a harsher chge from numerous employers in recent years -- today's young americans just do't have the work ethic of the past. the response we got? nnifer: i have work ethic for the things that i want to work on that i feel will better myself and be good for my health as well. paul: would jennifer riordan in lawrence, kansas, who calls herself not a housewife but an apartment-wife, take a frontline job? jennifer: i would do that if i knew that my labor would be valued, that my personhood would be valued, that i wouldn't just be another cog in this machine that keeps endlessly grinding us downwards. paul: college degreed 22-year

old fable, who goes by first name only. what was the stress like working at starbucks? fable: unbearable. it's just nonstop. if we were paid enough to actually survive, then yes, the n i could handle at least some of the stress some of the time. paul: fable says the options are go back to school -- fable: or i go to one of what we call unskilled jobs and then i don't even have enough to afford living outside of my parent's home, which i'm doing anyway without working. so i might as well just do that. paul: just two data points, but is it some evidence of the entitlement charge? julia: if you go and sit in the archives, you can find newspaper articles and radio segments dating back hundreds of years where people make the same arguments about the young. paul: bottom line today it may , still be hard to find good help, but if your main worry was recession in 2023, layoffs, a

bear market today's jobs reports , is being viewed as something of a storybook ending for 2022. for the pbs newsur, paul solman. ♪ amna: indian journalist and washington post contributor, one of the critics of the indian prime minister. has long been a target of trumped up investigations, hate speech and online harassment. she recently won the highest awarfor press freedom from the national press club in washington, but is now headed back to india to face trial for sham charges of money laundering. she says it's the latest attempt of the government to silence her and is emblematic of what journalists in india face. she joins us from dubai. welcome to the newshour. thanks for joining us. you're returning home to india to face these charges. a court has summoned you.

that's why you're returning. and in summary, i guess we can say they allege that y've mishandled money that you raised for victims of covid-19. i know the legal case is ongoin but what can you tell us about these charges? rana: it's not the first time that allegations against me have been leveled by the government of india. they have leveled money laundering charges against me, leveled tax evasion charges against me. they have accused me of misusing funds which they have not been able to prove and i'm not the only one. money laundering has become like the latest tool for the indian government. the latest charges that the indian government has been leveling against all journalists, critics and activists in india. indian journalist siddique kappan has been behind bars for the last two years for a story he did not report. and just when he was about to be freed by the courts, the enforcement directorate filed ney laundering charges against him. the conviction rate of this charge against people less than 1%, and that speaks volumes what this case means.

amna: we should note the committee to protect journalists, other journalism groups, even a united nations body has called this judicial harassment when it comes to the cases and charges against you. specific to your charges, i'm wondering why do you believe that the government has set its sights on you? rana: i have been critical of the government. the modi government and its rules since 2014, that he has not had a conference in theast four years. his hindu attacks. i amot the only one. i consider myself privileged because i am able to speak to you.

journalists in kashmir are being arrested under public safety act for their journalism. they're not allowed to leave the country to collect their awards, even for that matter, the pulitzer awards. so that's where we are. the journalists in this country have become the enemies of the state right now. amna: we should note too, you've had your bank account frozen previously. you've been prevented from traveling previously as well. you mentioned you're not the only one, though. this is not just about what the government and government officials have have lodged against you. there's been an online campaign as well. you faced threats there. tell me about that. how bad is that? rana: sometimes i feel like deleting my twitter account. i've actually started self-censoring myself because, you know, the moment i tweet even a word, the kind of replies that that i get are nauseating. my image has been mobbed on a porn video. and so all over the country, my phone number has been circulated on social media. my address has been put out there, burned copies of my book, have had been sent to my residence. one of india's leading journalists, gauri lankesh, was shot dead in 2017 because she was allegedly by hindu nationalists. we don't know who killed her. and i do remember that two days before she was shot dead, i

remember she called me and she was telling me about the online online hate against me, saying these are paper tigers. they don't attack. and yet two days later, she was shot dead. so online or offline, i feel like it's relentless. and the only target is to basically silee us into submission, and silence us from speaking the truth. amna: you were scheduled to go back to india. what are you worried will happen when you return? rana: i don't know. a lot of people said, don't go to india. there are so many charges against you. i believe this is my truth and i'm heading back to india and those are the stories that i want to report. the people who are doing this do not want me to return to india and do not want me to do the stories that i do. but it is my moral obligation and moral responsibility that i continue doing this and talking about what's happening in india to the rest of the world. so which is why i'm going. what happens is, again -- i'm completely out of depth at this point of time, so i will leave that to probably the judiciary and see what happens from here.

but i can say this, my truth will not stop. my journalism will not stop. my quest for justice will not stop. amna: that is an indian journalist going us tonight. thank you. rana: thank you. ♪ geoff: two years on from the deadly generates six attack on the capital, justice departme officials continue to work to hold those responsible to account. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is back with a report on where the prosecutions stand. lisa: an attack on the u.s. capitol now simply known by the date it happened -- january 6th. exactly two years ago today, thousands of supporters of president donald trump, encouraged by his words -- mr. trump: we fight like hell,

and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. lisa: -- violently disrupted the counting oelectoral votes for the first time in our nation's history. judy, there are protestors, protestors have broken into the u.s. capitol. it would take six hours for law enforcement to secure the building and grounds and another nine for congress to finish certifying the 2020 election results. an estimated 250 officers were injured that day. and, a 2021 bipartisan senate report found that at least seven people, including three police officers, lost their lives in connection with the attack. sie that report came out, two more officers who served on january 6th have died by suicide. at least 15 people were were arrested in the capitol on january 6. most rioters simply returned home, kick-starting the largest investigation in fbi history. mary: it's really an enormous, enormous undertaking. lisa: mary mccord heads

georgetown university's institute for constitutional advocacy and protection and is a former justice department official. more than 950 people have been charged with cmes related to january 6. mary: the scope of the charges coming out of the attack on the u.s. capitol on generally is sixth very broad. we have everything from misdemeano, such as trespassing on federal property all the way up to felony , offenses that carry a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. lisa: derrick evans served three months behind bars. derrick: i don't know how i feel about everything right now, to be honest with you. i really don't. lisa: this was him that day. livestreaming on the capitol steps, he entered the capitol with the crowd. fothat, evans pleaded guilty to felony civil disorder, a charge he sees as grossly harsh because he committed no violence. he shows how the ideas, tensions and resentments of january 6 remains. evans still defends the people who were there.

derrick: i think it was a group of patriotic americans who were frustrated with what's been happening in this country. lisa: but you understand that as being part of that mob, that was a threat to democracy? derrick: well, first of all, it still wasn't a part of the mob. i was part of the group of patriotic americans who wereex hegingvecin atrigh tts to free . lisa: some might say you sound unrepentant. is that right? derrick: no, that would not be accurate. i'm not going to regret my actions on that day. i do regret that, you know, i was part of a crowd that has now been, you know, labeled as people who who were violent, even though i didn't do those things. lisa: not everyone was violent, but the crowd overall was very violent. according to the fbi, so far, nearly 200 people have been arrested for assaulting police officers. that is more than one-in-five of all charged. rioters have been arrested in 48 states.

according to a recent study, about a third of them have connections to extremist organizations. that includes two leaders of the far-right oath keepers. stewart rhodes and kelly meggs were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in november. it was the first conviction on that charge in almost three decades. argehat's fairly rarely brought in the u.s., but here it really does fit what happened. it is a conspiracy to violently hinder or delay the execution of u.s. law. lisa: more than 500 people have been convicted of various crimes, the vast majority of them pleaded guilty. the fbi is still seeking tips from the public about hundreds of other people involved in january 6, including the person who planted two pipe bombs near the republican and the democratic national committees' headquarters the night before the riot. meanwhile, hovering over at all have been questions and charges related to former president

trump's involvement. >> on this vote -- lisa: one week after january 6th, the house of representatives voted to impeach the then-president, charging him with incitement of insurrection. a month later... >> the senate will come to der. lisa: mr. trump's team defended him in the u.s. senate.. >> mr. trump did not incite the horrific terrible riots of january 6th. lisa: where a majority found him guilty, a figure short of the required two-thirds. he was acquitted. >> president trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack. lisa: that summer, a house select committee launched what would become an 18-month investigation into january 6th, focused on former president trump. after interviewing more than 1000 witnesses, the committee aired testimony in 10 public hearings, from those close to trump -- >> the president said something to the effect of i'm the effing

president. take me up to the capitol now. lisa: and those who bore the brunt of the violence. >> never in my wildest dreams did i think that, as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, i would find myself in the middle of a battle. lisa: last month, as it finished its work, the committee referred mr. trump to the department of justice on four criminal charges, including aiding or comforting those involved in an insurrection. for his part, trump and his allies have streed these words of his to the crowd on january 6. >> i know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. lisa: he has decried accusations against him and insisted he is a political victim. >> why aren't they investigating november 3, a rigged and stolen election? lisa: to this day, the former president continues to lie about his 2020 election loss. he has repeatedly praised rioters and condemned their

prosecution. >> what they've done to torment people and go after people, like never before, i don't think anything like this has ever happened in our country. lisa: two years on, despite the mayhem and bloodshed, the danger of january 6 lingers. it is a powerful political device for some on the right. remember derrick evans? he's now running for congress and says the actions that got him present time help with many voters. derrick: honestly, the biggest response i getrom the people of southern west virginia, when it comes january 6th is thank you. thank u for having enough courage to go do what so many people wanted to do. lisa: in november, trump kicked f another presidential campaign for 2024. days later, attorney-general merrick garland appointed a special counsel to continue investigations into the former president's actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election. critics i have concluded that it

-- >> i have concluded that it is in the public interest to apint a special counsel. lisa: earlier this we, as trials and investigations into the generate six attack on the capital continue, the people's house once again opened its doors to visitors. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins in washington. geoff: on this anniversary of january 6, our correspondence also took a look at the domestic and international consequences of that day. >> how has january 6 changed the way the united states is perceived around the world. ? >> there's no question it was a shock to the system. the biggest headwind to our work and trying to support those seeking democracy for themselves. making a more democratic world is what happens in the united states. >> we can look at the fact that our system works. it was a propaganda gift to authoritarian adversaries. what those countries can aspire to do is weaken us internally,

to cause us to further divide ourselves, including through misinformation and propaganda and influence operations. >> are you concerned about voter suppression, gerrymandering when it comes to where the u.s. democracy stands? >> i am very worried about the state of our politics, vy worried about what is happening in congress, i am worried about the state of the republican party. but i am more optimistic about the ability of americans to sustain this diverse, maddening, complicated democracy. geoff: you can find those inteiews at pbs.org/newshour. ♪ amna: at the end of this chaotic but also reflective week on capitol hill, with the house speaker's battle and the january 6 anniversary we turn to the

, analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. good to see you both. it took four days, over a dozen rounds of votes for kevin mccarthy should just break the logjam to try to work toward getting the votes to become speaker. he hasn't done it yet as we speak right now. david, let's talk about the holdouts, the ones that have consistently opposed him and still do. are they just anti-mccarthy, are they never going to back him? jonathan: -- david: i don't think they are anti-mccarthy. there is one that wants to change the rules. in my view, it's wrong to call them very conservative, a lot of republicans are very conservative. these are nihilists and they are open about this. they said we just one of her in the place down. you have a positive agenda, and

that is absent in these people. it is a posture of rejection, a posture of negativity. they just want to be negative, be oppositiona and go on tv and say everybody else is screwed up. this is a form of nihilism in the republican, certainly in the conservative media sphere, took a cross and was very much on their side, and -- tucker carlsen was very much on their side. geoff: do you agree? jonathan: absolutely. there's nothing to add to what david said. the fact that there will be another vote may be tonight, maybe mccarthy breaks the logjam and gets to 218. but nihilists don't care about the schedule, the timetable, they don't care that folks won't

get paychecks because there is officially no congress. they want to blow stuff up. what better way than with each vote just way the dreams, hopes and aspirations of kevin mccarthy? geoff: can anyone govern this caucus -- amna: can anyone govern this caucus? jonathan: no, with the rules package and they released moments ago, whoever the next speaker is will be beholden to these nihilists. amna: if you have a number of these members on the rules committee, if you have kevin mccarthy, we understand, reportedly has already allowed them t lower the threshold, it will be easy to get rid of the speaker if they want to, what does it mean for the next two years. ? david: the rules committee really strikes me, it controls the schedule on the floor. it will be easier for them to buck things. it could be nothing will happen in this congress just because they have the ability to block.

it absolutely has to happen if we have to raise the debt ceiling in july. if we don't do it, the faith in the united states is destroyed. they will want to attach all sorts of writers -- riders to that. that means it is highly unlikely -- i don't see how they get a debt ceiling raised in the summer with this political landscape. that would be catastrophic. amna: that's a remarkable thing to say. david: in 2011 there was a fight about it, but sanity prevailed. we are the last, best hope for earth but we are no longer sure sanity will prevail. that's what we are staring at. amna: dare i ask how do you think this ends, this round for the battle of the spear ship? jonathan: hope springs ernal. i think mccarthy will eke it out, but what will it mean really he will be speaker in name only, living under threat of being

removed every moment of his life , the moment he gets a gavel. to your point, my biggest fear is the debt ceiling. the only thing we can hope is kevin mccarthy would have enough that's and fortitude to go to leader jeffries and say i need 212 of your people to vote for raising the debt limit and i will bring six and we can take care of this. but if he does that, he is done. amna: do you see that happening? david: i think the main threat for any mainstream conservative republican is the 20 on the right. the threat is not a bunch of moderate democrats. jonathan: right. david: if i was mccarthy and this would be a political ender, i would just go to 40 democrats and say what you want? it seems unrealistic but a bunch of states right now are doing that, were they have an independent speaker, they've had leaders in the state legislatures not of the ruling party, they have cut deals,

bipartisan deals. it's plausible in a universe other than our own. [laughter] amna: there's a bipartisan model we can point to this week, pretty dramatic split screen to see president biden and mitch mcconnell standing before the call a legislative miracle, the denver structure bill that will yield a big bridge project in kentucky, that is a dramatic contrast. david: that's the threshold that needs to be drawn. they are professionals. they have a sense of basic honesty and decency. you might not have liked george bush or barack obama, they more -- they were admirable human beings. we have sunk below that threshold from any people in congress. amna: a different kind of chaos two years ago, we marked the anniversary of the insurrection today. the further away you get from that day, how do you view it? jonathan: i still view it with

trepidation. think about it, two years ago a day -- ago today, we saw thousands of people instigated by the president of united states storm the capital trying to overturn a free and fair election. we are still seeing chaos in the house of representatives when the party of that president, a lot of whom voted not to certify the 2020 election, new folks who came in running on the big lie, going after kevin mccarthy and not voting for him and rendering the place into chaos as part of, to my mind, the ongoing insurrection. what happened on january 6 is still happening. i think, to set up a contrast, the split screen moment we are inn this country, at opposite ends of pennsylvania avenue. at one end, you have the president working with the senate minority leader, a

republican, on bipartisan infrastructure or whatever, showing what governance can look like when opposing parties come together for the good of the country. at the other end, in the capitol, 14 ballots so far and you still don't have a speaker. it is just an ongoing, ongoing insurrection, and i don't see win the republican party gets out of it or we as a nation out of it. na: among republicans, the election lie that drove trump supporters to the insurrection, it is still very potent, right? david: i think they are sort of moving on beyond trump but they still say it was a lie. there was a lack of loyalty to the truth. now we have a longer timeframe and i think about all of the doors the republican party had to walk through to get to generate sixth. there has been a lot of ugliness

in american history, but over my lifetime, there were a lot of doors they walked to that created what i might call a loss ofore -- of moral knowledge, the panic of rush limbaugh, what happened with the white christian nationalists. on the radio, on tv. the rise of tucker. the standards of acceptable behavior went down and tolerance went up and up. editorial today, that the threats to members of congress has gone up tenfold since donald trump was elected. 10,000 death threats to members of congress. that's in the air, and it is a verlyn stream of ideas and -- virulent stream of ideas. jonathan: i would i'd that what

we had not seen up until don ailed -- donald trump was a first candidate for president who stirred the pot and then continued to stir the pot of our nation's subterranean demands, bringing them out in the open, and doing it from the oval office. that has a power i think we are still reckoning with. the idea that a leader of this country, someone who is supposed to lead all of us, was using that platform, that bully pulpit to actually bully people, specific people in this country. and that's why we've seen i think threats against members of congress or elected officials go through the roof because if the president of the united states can do it, why can't i? amna: it has been a remarkable two years. it took a long time to get here and it will take years to unravel and fix a lot of this. thank you both so much.

geoff: once overlooked but no more, already by indigenous american artists getting more attention these days, and one new project has found a way to push the movement further ahead. jeffrey brown has a report, for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: on a hilltop in new york's hudson valley, buildings housing artworks created by contemporary indigenous artists from the u.s. and canada. among them, "never forget," by tlingit/unangax artist nicholas galanin, "beauty, the beast" by

santa clara pueblo artist rose simpson war horse in babylon, by , jaune quick-to-see smith, of the confederated salish and kootenai nation. candace: i say it's a bit of an activist collection because it's meant to, it's meant to correct, this absence particularly for these major institutions. jeffrey: an activist collection? candice: yes which means that it has a single purpose. you know, its purpose is to support the workf living artists making work right now. jeffrey: some of the activism is making sure it gets out in the world. candice: absolutely. and we try to reduce as many barriers to that as possible. jeffrey: hopkins, a citizen of carcross tagish first nation in the canadian yukon territory, is now executive director of forge project, co-founded in 2021 by philanthropist becky gochman and art dealer zach feuer with a clear mission -- to support native artists through purchases of their work, and then to lend those works to museums and other arts institutions, raising awareness of and access to native art.

it's part of what hopkins sees as a growing movement. candice: a lot of people are recognizing that one of the missing narratives in american art history is actually the narrative of the development of native art, and the influence native art has had, even on how we understand this country, how we understand the formation of this country. jeffrey: the buildings that house forge were originally designed by famed chinese artist ai wei wei. the location, the land itself, is important. candice: forge is about establishing presence. it's about indigenous placemaking. and that's not just about people. jeffrey: and it's not just about the art. candice: and it's not just about the art, it's about the places where we live. jeffrey: this is an area known as home to the famed 19th century hudson river school of art landscapes that captured the , drama and beauty, but not the original inhabitants who'd been killed or displaced farther west.

candice: i think for native folks to return to the region to say, you know, there's actually longer histories of these lands. jeffrey: forge's main target is the art world. its collection now has some 144 works by 48 artists. and it has loaned art to institutions far and wide, including the hammer museum in los angeles, the tucson museum of art cama - art, and the whitney in new york. for hopkins, 45, it represents a shift from when she was first starting out. candice: there were so many good native artists working in contemporary art, but they still wer't getting the big shows. there was a kind of, you know, the beginningsf a kind of national conversation that had been coming actually since the sixties. but what they needed was, they needed allies in these large institutions. jeffrey: bias? racism? hostility? what is it, what do you think? candice: i think that there was

definite bias. and i think that, you know, most of the people that were in positions of power had no knowledge of this work, and they didn't take the time to get to know it. that shows that there's a kind of elitism that underpins a lot of institutions. and you know, it kept a lot of us, a lot of us out. ♪ jeffrey: forge also offers residencies to native artists of all kinds. one is laura ortman, a white mountain apache who's long lived and worked in new york. a musician and composer, her sonic genre bending have been heard and seen in performing arts venues and museum exhibitions. forge and other new initiatives, she says, are making a difference. laura: we can find each other through these pathways, artisticly. which i was missing, for many decades. something's happened, where that loneliness and isolation is

disappearing. and why is that? because we're making spaces for ourselves. we are taking care of our own communities and making sure it's not silenced anymore. you know, it's incredible. i love that. jeffrey: also expanding the , scope, subject matter, and styles that define indigenous art today. some contemporary artists are using older materials, such as beads, long considered the stuff of craft in new ways. , others find new paths to explore long-simmering issues of land use and displacement. candice: one of the definitionsn es,liv our political lives and our artistic lives, because they're all intertwined. you know, in a way we don't have that privilege. jeffrey: exhibitions of native artists at leading museums in recent years offer signs of change.

forge aims to build on that momentum. candice: you need to have support from institutions and collectors. there needs to be critical writing about that work, so catalogs and essays. exhibitions. there needs to be an art market, so that work is being represented by galleries. jeffrey: in theory, if you're successful, then you wouldn't be needed anymore. candice: that's right. jeffrey: you would go out of business. candice: exactly. and that would be, that would be success. jeffrey: that day remains far off. for now, the collecting and lending continue. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at forge project in new york's hudson valley. geoff: it is striking to see the richness, the significance of the art extending to the line -- the land itself could amna: i liked how the director talked about how projects like this help artists create their own space. geoff: join us later tonight

here on pbs to join yamiche alcindor and her panel for washington week. and tune into pbs news weekend for the latest on the battle for house speaker. amna: and we will be back here next week with navy veteran mark frerichs' first tv interview since being released by the taliban after two and a half years held hostage. >> i never broke down and cried, i came close, but i wasn't going to let them -- they may have stole three years of my life but i wasn't going to let them steal my soul and spirit. amna: that interview right here on monday. and that is the newshour for tonight. i am on the nawaz. geoff: and i am geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪

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tonight and kqed newsroom we speak about the findings of the january 6 commission and the current gridlock in washington. >> plus mayor recently stepped down leaving san jose. we talk with him about his legacy and lessons learned from being in office. and we take a visit to san francisco's iconic ferry building. coming from kqed headquarters in san francisco, this friday, january 6, 2023. >> hello and welc