amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, a sixth memphis police officer is relieved of duty after the killing of tyre nichols. we speak with the family's lawyer. amna: on a trip to the middle east, the u.s. secretary of state urges israelis and palestinians to restore calm amid a spike in violence. geoff: and what's causing the price of eggs to skyrocket nationwide? >> before when we would mess up an egg or an egg would break, it was no big deal. we have another one. now it's like, oh, it's like we're mourning that egg. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by.

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour." the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.org.

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." a sixth police officer in memphis has been suspended in the death of tyre nichols. memphis police announced today that officer preston hemphill has been relieved of his duties as part of an internal investigation. and, this evening, the memphis fire department announced it fired two emt's and a lieutenant who responded to the scene, but failed to provide sufficient care and violated numerous policies. amna: those moves come as residents in memphis have demanded further accountability for leadership and for others who responded when nichols was beaten, tasered, and pepper-sprayed for a full three minutes. benjamin crump is representing tyre nichols' family.

i spoke to him a short time ago after the suspension of the officer, but before the news about the emt's on the scene. mr. crump, welcome back to the "newshour." let's start with the news today, at sixth officer who was relieved of duty days after the five other officers were removed from duty and then arrested and charged. what do we know about this sixth officer and why this step was taken now? benjamin: well, amna, what i do know is tyre's father, mr. rodney wells, said, the first time he saw the video, why wasn't this white officer terminated as well? because he saw h with the taser shooting tyre. and it is believed by the tyre's family that you also hear the officer say something to the effect, i hope when they catch him, they stomp him, and used some more profane language.

and so it does underscore the fact that many people, once the video was released, said, hold on, why wasn't he also arrested? why wasn't he charged with anything? and so, we believe that he should be terminated immediately, like the five black officers were terminated. amna: do you believe accountability stops with these officers? benjamin: no, i think that this whole scorpion unit within the memphis police department was operating business as usual. when you see how nonchalantly they acted in that video, how they were talking to each other while tyre laid there in distress, moaning, fighting for his life, they seemed like it was just business as usual.

so we believe that there is a pattern and practice that exists within the memphis police department, especially in this unit, that says it's ok to engage in excessive use of force against people of color, and depending on where they live at. and so, we believe that this is big -- part of a bigger culture in the police department. amna: mr. crump, there are a lot of questions about why tyre was even stopped in the first place, whether or not it was a legitimate traffic stop, as the police have claimed. have you seen any evidence that speaks to that, why he was stopped? benjamin: no, amna, we have not seen any reason. i mean, we heard the allegations that they say he was driving recklessly, and then on one time on the tape, you hear some officers say he was coming down the wrong way on the street.

but we believe, if that did exist, that somebody would have come forward by now with all the attention that this tragic video has gotten. and so we don't think that is true. amna: mr. crump, we have seen so many calls for reform, so many incremental steps over the years. you have worked on countless cases of police brutality and police killings. you have called for what you what you say needs to be institutionalized police culture to change. what does that mean? how es that happen? benjamin: well, we need systemic reform. we haven't had meaningful police reform on the federal level since president lyndon baines johnson's great society legislation in the 1960's. we didn't get it in 1992 with rodney king. we didn't get it with michael brown in ferguson, missouri, during the obama administration. we didn't get it with george floyd.

and how many more videos do we have to show you, america, before you understand that there's a problem with policing in communities of color? and that was one of the reasons his family thought it was so important to release the video, because, many times, people who don't live in communities of color believe that, no, there's no way that police would just abuse or brutalize a citizen even if he hasn't done anything or she hasn't done anything. well, this video is yet again another exhibit how they police people in our community. amna: over these last four days, we have seen what i can only describe as the incomprehensible strength and grace of tyre's mother and stepfather, rowvaughn and rodney wells. what can you tell us about how they're doing? benjamin: you know, they're

pretty incredible people. rowvaughn wells has said on many occasions now that she feels her son was sent on an assignment from god, and that an assignment is completed and he's now back home with his heavenly father. she said that's the only way she can cope with trying to make sense of this tragedy, that there must be some greater good that comes from the tragic killing of her son by the police officers who were supposed to protect and serve him. she said that, when we were talking to president biden, we want him to have the united states senators chuck schumer and cory booker reconvene and put the george floyd justice and policing act back on the table, as well as talking with congresswoman sheila jackson lee

over judiciary in the house of representatives, for them want to put it back on the table, so, maybe with the tragic killing of tyre nichols' death, we might just be able to get police reform. we know that it's not going to be easy, but tyre is worth the fight, and we have got to try to make his mother's wishes come true. amna: that is benjamin crump, civil rights attorney representing the family of tyre nichols. mr. crump, thank you for your time. benjamin: thank you, amna. geoff: as we just heard, tyre nichols' family, as well as memphis authorities, said it was important to release the video to the public to convey the brutality of the attack. and there were many warnings about the graphic violence in it. but for many people who have seen the video, it is traumatizing and one of far too many like it. some say the public is exposed to these videos too easily and that it raises real questions for a person's mental health. we're going to explore some of this with riana elyse anderson,

a licensed clinical psychologist and a current fellow at stanford center for advanced study in behavioral sciences. thanks for being with us. riana: thanks for having me. geoff: the tragic killing of tyre nichols by police, it has permeated social media. it's being shown on the news. it is difficult to avoid watching it. how do these horrific videos affect those who end up watching them? riana: the first is the classic trauma response, where you're looking around, you're thinking maybe this will happen to me, so that's hyper vigilance, or it's bouncing around in your head. that's rumination. those are some of the classic responses we might think of. the second is if you're numb to it. so, you're the same background, you don't actually want yourself to spike every single time you watch something like this, so you might numb yourself so that you're not responding to it every single time we see a video. but the third and the thing and that makes me a little more nervous is that we're teaching when we watch these videos, so

you're actually learning to dehumanize people that look like this with the video, so a number of responses, none of them quite good for our body or mind. geoff: well, i want to pick up on one of the things that you said, because, in this era of police body cameras and cell phone videos, we have seen the police killings captured on tape not just of tyre nichols, but of eric garner, george floyd, philando castile, walter scott. the list, unfortunately, goes on and on and on. what do you see as the compound effect of that? riana: yeah. again, when we think about what can happen to our mind and our body, there are so many things that, either from a response, where we believe that it's going to happen, or what's more common now, this nonresponse of our bodies and minds are getting used to it, that compounded response is something that i'm a bit nervous is leading to ways that we're believing that this is a common occurrence.

it is potentially reducing the amount of agency that we think that we have in stopping something like this. it's something that is really impacting those that are watching it, both who are the target demographic and those who are not. geoff: well, let's talk more specifically then. how should black folks in particular cope with, grapple with, process this stuff? riana: yeah. one of the things that i'm mindful of here is that there was a lot of warning that this was coming. and so for a number of clinicians who i know, including myself, we chose not to watch it. so, we took that warning as a sign that we would not engage with this video. it's not going to teach us anything new. it's not going to bring back our brother. so why watch it? that's the first thing that i'm mindful of. but if you did choose watch it, or if it wasn't something that you knew was coming on, there are three quick things that i think you can do with those feelings. the first is to talk it out. can you process it with something -- someone that you care about?

can you walk it out? so can you do behavioral change? we saw a number of protests happening this weekend. so can you put your feet on the ground to actually do something about this? and the final thing is to think about the chalking process or things that are a bit more in policy, in writing. so can we actually talk to these police agencies? can we do things locally and even nationally that it might impact the way that policing changes so that we don't have to see these videos again? geoff: how should parents and people who care for children prepare for some of the questions they might get? riana: oh, such a great question. and it's definitely a part of my work. so the talk that black parents and parents of color are having with their children, the most important thing in this preparation is being ready for yourself. so have you done the work? have you thought about and processed and prepared for how you're feeling? if you're upset, if you're frustrated, do you tap into that so that you know how you're feeling? have you processed it with someone else? so the first thing i encourage parents is to be ready

themselves to talk it out and to feel it for themselves. and the second thing, when you're talking to your child or young people that you care for, listen. so you don't have to have all the answers. you don't have to know why structural racism continues to this day. and, in fact, that's not for us to understand. that's for the folks who are perpetrating it to stop. so you don't have to have all of the answers, but listening and helping your child to process, to respond and say, i don't know, to cry together, being vulnerable, those are the biggest things that you can do for the talk. geoff: riana, it strikes me that, when these videos are shown over and over and over again, that the culture can become desensitized to it, and that the result is that you have what amounts to a national spectacle of black death. give me your thinking on that. how should we better understand that and better avoid it? riana: yeah, i think there are two minds of this. the first, is it good to be released, right? so there's a "yes, and" here.

we love accountability, we love transparency, we love making sure that we know the facts of a case or a situation. so, it's important for us to have that information. but it's also really important to be mindful of that impact of our mind and our body. so that trauma can not only make you think about and to be frustrated and to be traumatized by it, but it can also wear at your body as well. so, when we think about how we can limit our consumption, that's something that we have agency over. we can choose whether we limit our own consumption, but it's also a question for the media and the police. are there better methods of even sharing or making it available? is there a repository that you can check into if you're an adult and you have to sign in for verification? there are ways that we can think about holding these officers and these agencies accountable without leading to further traumatization of a community. geoff: riana elyse anderson is current fellow at stanford center for advanced study in the

behavioral sciences. thanks so much for your insights. i appreciate it. riana: thank you so much. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines. updating our top story, the memphis police department released a statement this afternoon saying that a seventh officer involved in the death of tyre nichols has been relieved of duty. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken urged israelis and palestinians to step back after days of growing bloodshed. the secretary arrived as israeli troops killed another palestinian in the occupied west bank, and after a palestinian gunman killed seven israelis on friday. blinken said all civilian casualties are deplorable. in northern pakistan, a suicide bomber killed at least 59 people and wounded 157 others today at a mosque inside a police compound.

in the city of peshawar today, a man blew himself up among a crowd of worshippers. the explosion was so powerful, it caused the mosque's roof to collapse. the wreckage landing on the nearly 400 worshippers below. rescue workers scrambled to the scene. they used machinery and their bare hands to pick through the rubble in search of survivors. >> we reached the site after the blast and there was chaos. i rescued seven people and put them in ambulances. onportion of the mosque had totally collapsed due to the blast. stephanie: police say they're investigating how the attacker managed to slip through several barricades to enter the secured compound, and whether he had inside help. the pakistani taliban formally denied any involvement.

the group is separate, but ideologically aligned with the taliban in afghanistan. both defend an oppressive interpretation of islam. today, prime minister shehbaz sharif visited theounded at their hospital bedsides and called for stern action. pakistan has faced a surge of such attacks since november, when a ceasefire between the taliban and the sharif government broke down. tonight, mourners attended a mass funeral, expressing grief over the country's latest tragedy, one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in years. the mosque attack was widely condemned, even by the taliban government in afghanistan. the grinding war in eastern ukraine claimed more lives today, with neither side gaining much ground. ukrainian officials said russian shelling killed five civilians in the last 24 hours. in turn, president volodymyr zelenskyy appealed to western nations to speed up shipments of tanks and other heavy weapons. later, when asked by reporters, president biden said the u.s.

will not provide f-16 fighter jets to ukraine. back in this country, the virginia elementary school where a six-year-old shot his teacher reopened today. students returned to class in newport news, more than three weeks after the shooting. security was tighter, and the classroom where the shooting happened remained closed. the wounded teacher, abby zwerner, is recovering at home. three passings of note tonight. hockey legend bobby hull spent most of his 16 seasons with the chicago blackhawks and helped them win the stanley cup in 19. his blonde hair and speed on the ice earned him the nickname "the golden jet," and he was twice named mo valuable player on his way to pro hockey's hall of fame. bobby hull died at 84 years old. the actress cindy williams, who played shirley in the popular sitcom "laverne and shirley," has died at the age of 75. she also starred in classic films like "american graffiti" and "the conversation."

and finally, barrett strong, the writer and lead singer on motown's first major hit "money," released in 1960. >> ♪ the best things in life are free but you can give them to the birds and bees i need money. ♪ ♪ stephanie: he also collaborated on other classics including "i heard it through the grapevine" and "war." barrett strong was 81 years old. still to come on the "nehour," president biden visits baltimore to tout the benefits of infrastructure funding. a look at former president trump's support among evangelicals as he ramps up his campaign. and a new book examines the political influence and legacy of the baby boomer generation. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in t west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

amna: after days of bloodshed between israelis and palestinians and reported israeli airstrikes in iran, secretary of state tony blinken became the latest high-ranking american official to travel to israel. he landed today for consultations with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. as nick schifrin reports, blinken is trying to keep a lid on further bloodshed and coordinate u.s.-israeli cooperation on israel's nemesis to the east, iran. nick: it was supposed to be a trip to coordinate with a newly elected allied government. but violence created a crisis. today, palestinians buried naseem abu fouda, the 35th palestinian they say was killed by israelis this month, mostly fighting isrli soldiers. last week in jenin, israel launched the deadliest raid in the occupied west bank in years. and, this weekend, israelis

buried rafael ben eliyahu, a victim of an attack on an east jerusalem synagogue, one of the worst against israelis in years that the u.s. labeled terrorism. and now another explosion, a publicly uttributed strike near an iranian military factory. sec. blinken: as you can see, i have just landed in israel at what is a pivotal moment. nick: secretary of state antony blinken went from the airport to a meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, at the top of the agenda, stopping israeli-palestinian violence. sec. blinken: that's why we're urging all sides now to take urgent steps to restore calm, to de-escalate. natan: we have seen record numbers for quite a while, at least record numbers of deaths on both sides. and now we' seeing this escalation, which has -- gives all the fodder, all the fuel for a major, perhaps third intifada. and all that's missing is a spark. nick: natan sachs directs brookings' center for middle east policy. he says weak palestinian

leadership and growing palestinian frustration has created a powder keg. and now there's an ultranationalist israeli coalition that challenges the status quo at jerusalem's holiest site, calls for de facto annexation of the occupied west bank, and reducing the supreme court's power to check parliament. natan: it's a coalition with very far right partners of netanyahu and policies that worry washington very much. nick: and can secretary blinken calling for calm help avoid an explosion? natan: unless you shout, unless you make clear that this is a moment of extreme danger, which i believe it is, you will not be able to move things the way you need to move it. so secretary blinken would actually be well-served by being less diplomatic, banging on the table quite a few times and being able to be less of the diplomat that he truly is and more of a shouter, which he is not. nick: what speaks loudly, last week's u.s.-israel joint exercises, the largest ever. u.s. officials called it a message of deterrence to iran.

and now, 36 hours before blinken's arrival, an explosion in isfahan, reportedly near a site connected to iran's ballistic missile program. norman: this facility has been known to have been engaged in missile development and development of high technologies, which would have made missiles to target other countries with great precision. nick: norman roule is the u.s.' former national intelligence manager for iran, and now a fellow at the haard belfer center. iran has the middle east's largest inventory of ballistic missiles, many capable of striking israel. norman: so it appears that this action was meant to inhibit or destroy programs aimed at improving missile technology. that implies both knowledge of the program. that also implies that there was an effort to set back a program and send a message also to iran's leadership that this particular threatening activity would not be tolerated. nick: iran said the target was a military factory.

israel did not claim public credit, but netanyahu cited iran's nuclear and missile program today. pm netanyahu: our policy and my policy is to do everything within israel's power to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. and that will remain so. nick: it's unlikely the target was connected to iranian drones or missiles bought by russia to attack ukraine, says roule. norman: the nature of iran's weaponry for russia in its aggression against ukraine has been off-the-shelf material. again, this facility was likely engaged in advanced research or some specific activity that some actor wanted to stop before that activity reached the point where it could threaten regional countries. sec. blinken: good to see you. pm netanyahu: good to see you, tony. sec. blinken: you as well. nick: the u.s. now downplays any chance of diplomacy with iran. that helps align the two countries' regional goals. for that to continue, the u.s. has to manage any disagreements and try and ensure that this

violence doesn't erupt any further. for the "pbs nshour," i'm nick schifrin. amna: prices have risen for lots of foods, but the cost of eggs climbed the most in the last year. and nsumers and businesses have scrambled to keep up. what's behind so-called eggflation? economics correspondent paul solman takes a look. paul: breakfast time at in a pickle in waltham, massachusetts, which means egg tim: i would say 70% of our menu either has eggs in it or revolves around eggs or is egg-centric in some way. so, omelets, scrambles. it's in our pancake mix, in our waffle mix, in the french toast mix. people even put eggs on hamburgers too, so it even

crosses over to lunch. we have hard-boiled eggs in our salads. just a lot of eggs. paul: eggs that, says chef owner tim burke, have -- yeah, you know it's coming -- put him in a pickle. tim: the egg prices are just about 220% year over year right now. paul: and that's wholesale prices, forcing burke to hike his menu so he doesn't end up in the hole. tim: we only went up 5% though, and we priced our eggs out at $0.15 an egg. but they're $0.50 an egg in reality. so we're kind of taking a hit in our margins. and we're just going to hope for the best that it comes down. paul: well, why not raise it commensurate with the actual cost to you? tim: we wouldn't have many customers walk through the door. paul: so eggs here have become precious. tim: we do have to make our employees aware that this is something, this is a commodity that we need to really handle a bit more carefully. paul: don't drop the eggs. tim: right. paul: do you tell them? tim: yes, of course. of course, yes. paul: you tell them not to drop the eggs? tim: and, before, when we would mess up an egg or an egg would break, it, was, oh, no big deal, we have another one.

now it's like, oh, it's like, oh, we're mourning that egg. paul: meanwhile, at the retail grocery store, egg prices soared 60% in 2022 alone, more than any other food item, prompting memes all over the internet. and one farm group lodges a common complaint -- egg producers are price-gouging. economist brian earnest says consumers really notice the price hike. brian: on average, consumers are buying roughly 280 eggs a year. folks always know the last price that they paid for a gallon of gas, and they typically know the last price they paid for a dozen eggs. paul: multiple factors are driving today's prices, says poultry educator abby schuft, including -- abby: higher feeprices. our grain prices, our market grain markets have hit some record highs over the last several months. transportation costs, labor shortages, as well as labor wages, other inputs, like our energy to heat barns, all of those inputs have increased over

the year and have really made an impact just on production. paul: but the biggest driver of eggflation is the worst outbreak of avian flu ever, says brian earnest. brian: we have seen depopulations upwards of 40 million layers over the last year. paul: out of some 300 million layers, or hens. brian: you're talking about 15% of overall production has been impacted by avian influenza this past year. paul: and why do they have to kill millions of birds? brian: so the thought process is to try and stamp out the spread, becae it is so deadly to the birds. they end up deep populating the -- end up depopulating the entire farm itself and putting up a perimeter around the area. paul: eggflation isn't hurting everyone, though. dan: these are going to be the pullets that we sell in here. paul: at the waltham agway store, the hens are healthy and flying while shuffling off the shelf. hi, guys.

chickens are dan wildes' bread and butter. dan: the hens here, $30 each. now, they will be laying eggs at around 18 weeks. paul: but this flock is dwindling. dan: there was 100 chickens in that three weeks ago. now there's about six or seven. paul: why? there has been a chicken run, customers flocking to buy do-it-yourself layers. dan: because of the egg prices. evyone's thinking, i need to get chickens. paul: how much is your business increased once egg prices started skyrocketing? dan: 45%, at least. i think the numbers on chicken sales this year withhe egg prices is going to be phenomenal. paul: turkeys and turkey eggs are also popular, though, here, they will never sell their stud, edgar, an indoor regular. but also in high demand, chicks. is is a rhode island red? dan: rhode island red. paul: these two-day-olds sell for $8 apiece. dan: so we have already sold about 25 when they came in

yesterday, and, by the this weekend, hopefully, we will be down to almost empty. paul: now, egg prices have ebbed since peaking in december. but economist earnest thinks they will stay high. brian: consumers will continue to see higher prices for the eggs that they're buying at grocery store chains. paul: especially since avian flu remains an existential threat, says abby schuft. abby: it looks like it will be here for the foreseeable future. paul: but egg production isn't necessarily a harbinger of persistent overall inflation, says economic historian adam tooze. adam: you would need a series of really negative shocks like this, more and more avian flu to kill more and more birds. you would need the price of bird feed to continuously rise. otherwise, what this does is to shock the cost of living once and very grievously and for people on low incomes quite seriously. it's quite difficult to afford

eggs right now. but it doesn't result in cumulative inflation, which is a 5% increase or a 10% increase every year, year on year on year on year. paul: that doesn't mean egg consumers won't continue to feel the pinch for quite a while. look, this is pecking me here. ah. [laughter] that actually hurts. stop it. as f the folks buying chickens to lay at home, says tooze, if you add your own labor to the initial investment -- adam: you better have some pretty good reasons for doing that, because, from an economic point of view, it makes no sense. paul: unless, in the broader sense of economic benefits, you get value from bonding with the animals. i hear you have very large eggs. for the "pbs newshour," paul solman, trying to do so myself in waltham, massachusetts. geoff: president biden was in baltimore today to highlight a major railway tunnel

reconstruction project that will be paid for in part by the bipartisan infrastructure law. the project will replace a century-old tunnel connecting philadelphia and washington, a familiar route for the president, who spent years as a senator commuting via amtrak from delaware to the u.s. capitol. following all of this closely in baltimore is white house correspondent laura barron-lopez. so, laura, tell us about president biden's announcement today in baltimore. laura: yeah, geoff, president biden was out here today talking about improvements that will be made to what is the largest bottleneck for commuters along the northeast corridor. and at this baltimore rail tunnel project is going to d is, it will replace 150-year-old baltimore potomac tunnel. it's also going to create around 30,000 jobs, and it will increase train speeds from 30 miles per hour to 100 miles per hour. it could also save commuters nearly 450,000 hours per year as they commute along this railway.

now, the tunnel is going to be renamed after the american abolitionist frederick douglass, who was born in maryland. and, in total, the entire project is going to cost some $6 billion. more than $4 billion of that is going to be coming from the bipartisan infrastructure law. geoff: so, president biden is at the halfway mark of his first term. as you have previously reported, the white house is now focusing on implementing the massive pieces of all the legislation he's signed into law. tell us more about that strategy, now that it's being put into practice. laura: so, the next few years, geoff, are going to be focused on implementing and selling the laws that the president passed during the first two years of his presidency. and president biden, just like during his 2020 presidential campaign, as well as during the first half of his term, he today talked about how the country was going to compete with china's economic rise. pres. biden: we went through four decades where we exported jobs and imported product.

we're exporting product and importing jobs now. for too long, we have talked about asserting america's leadership and building the best economy in the world. well, to have the best economy in the world, you have to have the best infrastructure in the world. laura: now, a lot of these jobs, from the project here in baltimore to others across the country, are going to be blue-collar jobs, jobs for people that -- where they will not require a college degree. and that's something that president biden talked a lot about today. this is, of course, with an eye towards 2024, geoff, because the president is trying to win back a number of white working-class voters, those that areot college-educated, that have moved away from the democratic party in recenelection cycles. geoff: so, laura, this is just the first stop on the president's infrastructure tour this week. where else is he heading? laura: so, the president is on an east coast tour this week, geoff. that tour is going to start, as it did today, here in baltimore. then, tomorrow, on tuesday, the

president is headed to new york, where he's going to highlight the hudson tunnel project. that's improvements to another rail tunnel there. he's going to go from there to philadelphia later in the week, where he will be with vice president kamala harris. and they're going to highlight another element of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that is focusing on replacing lead pipes. that -- also, this week, the president is going to be going to a number of democratic national committee fund-raising events, because, again, he is likely to announce his 2024 bid this spring. geoff: white house correspondent laura barron-lopez reporting for us from baltimore tonight. laura, thank you. laura: thank you. amna: this weekend, former president donald trump held his first campaign rallies since announcing he was running for office again. mr. trump visited new hampshire

and south carolina, trying to shore up support as he waits to see if any other republicans will stand up to challenge him. william brangham reports on how the former predent is doing among one key republican constituency. william: amna, when donald trump first ran for president, to the surprise of many, much of the christian evangelical community supported him. and after his first term, where he delivered on several key issues for that community, most notably putting three conservatives on the supreme court, the former president is once again counting on their support this time. but will he get it? to help answer that, i'm joined by ralph reed, a longtime evangelical politicaactivist and leader. he is the president of the faith and freedom coalition. ralph reed, good to have you on the "newshour." how is former president trump doing amongst the evangelical community today? ralph: well, look, i think there's a very deep reservoir of affection and appreciation for

president trump in the faith community. you mentioned the conservative supreme court justices. we achieved a half-century aspiration in the overturning of roe v. wade in the dobbs case. we now have an opportunity. it's not going to be without some fraught political sturm und drang, but we have an opportunity to protect innocent human life in the united states again, for the first time in 50 years at the ste level. he also was the most pro-israel president in american history, moving the embassy from teaviv to jerusalem. so there's a great deal of affection for this president. and i'm not really in the prediction business, but, to the surprise of almost everyone, he won a plurality of this vote in 2016. and i would expect him to do well again. but, as in 2016, this will be a very competitive primary. and there will be other

candidates, whether it's mike pompeo, or mike pence, or nikki haley, if ron desantis were to get in, many others, and they understand what donald trump understands, which is, there's no path to this nomination without winning a hefty and healthy plurality of this vote. so, no one should assume it's spoken for, and no should assume that their appeal is foreclosed. william: but why do you think he isn't the shoo-in for the candidacy? i mean, he's the only one who has declared that he's running. and, as you said, i get it that he was a longshot initially and seemed like an ill fit, but he has delivered in all the ways that you described. so why isn't he the de facto nominee amongst evangelicals? ralph: i think it's really very simple. we're in very much unchartered territory. i mean, this is the first time that a former president has sought his party's nomination for president after leaving the

white house since teddy roosevelt did it in 1912. it's the first time that a former president was a nominal front-runner with a very real chance of winning that nomination since grover cleveland in 1892. so, this is not without precedent in american history, but it is highly unusual for a former president to reenter the arena and seek that nomination. and i think i view this as a positive thing, not a negative commentary on the president. there's great affection for president trump. but there is such an embarrassment of riches. there is -- in part because of him, there is such a deep bench. i mean, let's remember, three of the most compelling candidates served in his cabinet. so this is not a bad thing. and there's nothing wrong with a healthy primary. and from our standpoint, we think the more candidates who go after these voters, the better

off we will be, as long as we can unify when it's over. william: certainly, that is the essence of our democratic process. what do you make of the argument that i have heard some of the evangelical community make, which is, yes, the former president delivered for us in many ways, but he is -- also comes with a good deal of baggage? there are swirling investigations. the left certainly voted him out e last time. he still is focused on the past election and his lies about what happened there, and that it is time to move on. do you think that that is a real sentiment in the evangelical community? ralph: i think that sentiment is there, and that argument is going to be made. and then i think the president and his supporters will be able to make their argument, which is -- lindsey graham said this weekend in introducing himn south carolina, if you think you're going to be able to get trump policies without the personality and person of trump,

you misunderstand the strength and the fortitude that was behind those policies. and i certainly witnsed that firsthand as a member of the faith advisory group when the president was in the white house. there was a toughness there that i won't say i hadn't seen in other candidates, but it was definitely unusual. so that's what this debate is going to be about. and that's wh primaries are for. and, again, i think this will be a very healthy process. and the president is going to get a chance to make his case. i can assure you, he is going to get a very fair hearing from voters of faith. but they're also going to want to kick the tires and look at some other people. and we really view our role in this as a matchmaker, not a kingmaker. we want to make sure all the voters get a chance to meet all the candidates and they all get to make their best case. we think that -- everybody wins if that's what happens. william: lastly, in just the few seconds we have left, what about

a former vice president mike pence? he seems most clearly aligned with the evangelical community and its values and its intentions and desires. why do you think he is not more a leading candidate? ralph: well, i wouldn't discount him at all. i think he is somebody who aligns very well with the values, the beliefs and the burdens on the hearts of millions of people of faith in this country. i had the great privilege of working with him very closely when he was vice president. he's a good friend. and i don't know of anybody in my career, frankly, who's done a better job of connecting and articulating the views and values of this constituency than mike pence. so, i don't count him out. i think he's a sleeper in this race. william: all right, ralph reed of the faith and freedom coalition, thank you so much. ralph: thank you.

geoff: the impact of the baby boom generation is impossible to ignore. the roughly 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 have reshaped american society at each stage of their lives, crowding american classrooms in the 1950's and 1960's, filling the labor and housing markets decades later, ultimately leaving their imprint on our politics and institutions. philip bump is a national columnist for the washington post and he takes a closer look at the generation's impact. his book is "the aftermath: the last days of the baby boom and the futu of power in america." phil bump joins us now. it's great to have you here. and when we talk about the baby boom generation, we're talking about the 76 million people that were born during that 19-year span. their influence is really stitched into the fabric of modern-day america. and you borrow an analogy in the book.

you say, "when the boomers entered the world, it was like a python swallowing a pig." in what way? why is that a fitting analogy? philip: well, i mean, it's certainly not a charming one. but it is fitting, in the sense that you can imagine very easily this fairly narrow python that all of a sudden has this huge bulge in it. not only does it have a huge bulge in it, but the bulge has to sort of work its way through the system. and so your point about the 76 million people being born, the population of the united states in 1945 was only 140 million. so it is this massive increase, particularly in young people right at the outset of the baby boom, that forces the united states, the python in this analogy, to try and deal with the pig that it has just swallowed. and the important factor here is that the pig is still passing throgh the python. and we have now reached the point where baby boomers are older and retiring. and it's creating a new set of urgencies that the government has to deal with and that our society has to deal with. geoff: what characteristics do baby boomers share? how is their generation different from the one that preceded it and the ones that followed? phip: so one of the

fascinating things about the baby boomers, it began at a lull in american immigration. there were -- about a century ago, there were new restrictions placed on immigration, a backlash to immigrants from eastern europe and southern europe in particular. and that was still in place when the baby boom began. at the time of the baby boom, one demographer told me, the average immigrant was somebody's grandparents. and right after the boom ended, there was -- the immigration laws were loosened. so you started seeing more immigrants from central america and mexico and asia. and so what happened when the baby boom began is, it began at a time when america was very, very heavily white in a way that it no longer is. and so the baby boom has -- obviously, it's a very heterogeneous generation. it has to be. there's tens of millions of people in it. but it tends to be much more heavily white than the generation, particularly the one that followed it. it tends to be less heavily made up of immigrants. it tends to have other characteristics as well. it has -- it's less likely -- boomers are less likely to have gone to college than millennials or gen z, for example. they're more likely to participate in institution, marriage among them, the

military, things along those lines. and those really shape both the culture and politics of the baby boom in a way that makes them distinct, particularly from younger generations. geoff: well, understanding that generational analyses are in many ways unavoidably sort of crude and imprecise, when we talk about the baby boom, we're talking about the woodstock generation, in many ways, who, in 2016, these were the same folks who put donald trump in office. help us understand how that happened. philip: yeah. no, it's a great question. and, fundamentally, it comes down to the fact that the baby boom really is two separate political groups. there is a republican group and a democratic group, which obviously isn't unique to the by boom. but it's also the case of boomers are less likely to be register independents than younger generations. and so you had this tension between left and right in e boom itself. but because the republican party itself is so much older than the democratic party, baby boomers make up a larger percentage of the republican party than they

do the democratic party. so, yes, the politics certainly shifted to some extent for individual boomers over that time. but it's also the case that, fundamentally, the baby boomers who voted for donald trump were sharing a similar sort of concerns, particularly around race oftentimes, to some extent, economics as well, that made them vote more homogeneously than the democrats on the -- in the baby boom. and so we had this effect where, yes, this was the generation that fought against things like the vietnam war draft, but then, ultimately, over time, had gotten to a point where they saw donald trump as the preferable candidate in 2016 and helped propel him to the white house. geoff: let's talk about the impact on the economy, because reading your book, i was struck by this line. you say, "the baby boom has accumulated an enormous amount of wealth during its three-quarters of a century of existence." baby boomers, many of them are supporting their millennial children. in some cases, they're supporting their grandchildren. what happens to the distribution of wealth in this country as baby boomers age?

philip: yeah, i mean, it's -- an enormous amount of wealth is being transferred already from baby boomers primarily to younger family members, but not exclusively. $2 million -- or $2 trillion, according to some experts i spoke with, in 2022 alone, upwards of $50 trillion over the course of the next several decades. that's an enormous amount of wealth. but there are a lot of questions about what happens with that, right? what happens, for example, as boomers age and they need more medical attention? how much of that is siphoned away in terms of the cost of medical care or senior housing, senior living? how much -- what happens with the housing market as seniors age, right? a lot of senior citizens in particular view their houses as a storehouse of value for their retirement. how does that affect house prices? what does that mean for millennials looking to buy houses? there are all these ways in which this massive amount of wealth that is held by the baby boomers, it's not really clear how much of that will end up trickling down, particularly to their families. but it's also important to note, because the baby boomer generation is so large, it's not

the case that baby boomers themselves are particularly wealthy on an individual basis. it's just that they have a lot of wealth because there are a lot of them, even if most of them aren't particularly wealthy pgep our conversation, i want to ask you about one the unanswered questions in your book. you write this, "a generation used to accruing and defending its power through sheer scale is watching that power crumble. we have seen generational tensions before, as when the boom emerged, but we're now living through something exceptional, a decline not of the spartan civilization, but of the roman one. we are living through an historic disruption of the american empire." so, what's this all mean for the future of our politics, for the future of our democracy? philip: yeah. no, absolutely. and, unfortunately, i'm not so brash as to be able to have a hard answer on that. but, yes, i mean, the boom really shaped what america looks like today, both in terms of just the boomers themselves making decisions, but also in the way that america had to respond to the emergence of the baby boomers. and we're seeing that change. we're seeing the boom now having

to deal with this younger generation, millennials and gen z, who are contesting for power, contesting for it -- i don't want to spend on senior housing. i want to spend on schools and things along those lines. and that is contributing some of the political reaction that we're seeing, some of the backlash against -- some of the increased tension that we see in our politics. does this mean that young people, for example, if they are more diverse, which they are, does that mean they're going to vote democratic forever? no, probably not. there are a lot of factors to take into consideration here. but this moment of tension is particularly acute because the baby boom has for so long been so powerful, and now for the first time is having to compete for that power in a real way. geoff: philip bump, his book is "the aftermath: the last days of the baby boom and the future of power in america." thanks for your time. philip: thank you, sir. amna: freelance writer rainesford stauffer focuses her work on younger generations. her upcoming novel "all the gold

stars" takes a closer look at how they view work and burnout. tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on rethinking ambition. rainesford: at one point, i think my professional life was my life. i behaved very much as if work was the centerpiece of everything. i starterealizing how much of that was rooted in insecurity that i was never going to be good enough. and once i figured out that we were having a conversation about self-worth and not work, that really changed the way i thought about it. i was too ambitious as a child. part of the thing that i'm trying to get away from in adulthood is sort of reconfiguring what my relationship with ambition is. in some ways, ambition was reinforcing the worst impulses of my mental health, that i was only as good as the last thing i produced. the messaging that i got about education and work and coming of age in general when i was a young adult, i think was really

grounded in a sense that 're all running out of time. i felt like there was a lot of messaging around figuring out who you were going to be in the world, what you were going to do, where you were going to go do it as early as you possibly could. and if you hadn't managed to lock down the answers to those kind of key questions, you had failed. i felt like i was failing young adulthood, when, in reality, that kind of changing course is exactly what young adulthood is. when we focus so much on what someone achieves and how early we do it, the part we miss are all of the other parts of them. and so one of the things that makes me so passionate about reporting on these intersecting ideas of achievement in young adulthood or life trajectories and ambition is that the more we can unravel these myths of what it means to be good, the closer we can come to feeling good enough. i'm coming to understand that there's a way to pursue things that matter to you, and it also

not be the whole of your identity, which i think is where i was a little bit misguided before, is, i felt like i needed to be one thing. and, in reality, we're all a lot of things. there were a lot of conversations i had with young adults when i was working on my first book about how work was consuming all their waking hours. they were working three separate jobs and still couldn't afford to pay their rent. and they had no health insurance. and it felt like the more they trieto expand the scope of their lives and to be full, fulfilled human beings in their lives, the more work took from them. i think, for a lot of us, it was mostly kind of looking over our shoulders, thinking, i should have more figured out by now than i do. i should be doing something other than what i'm doing. and i think the tricky part about that is those goalposts of what it means to achieve just ke moving. they never stop. my name is rainesford stauffer, and this is my brief but spectacular take on rethinking ambition. amna: good life lessons for all of us. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz.

geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. fw >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> data visualization. if i can see it and understand quickly, anyone can. that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org.

supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasng and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. this is "pbs newshour" west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," keith makes julia pasta cacio e uova. adam reviews the best chef's knives under $75. dan makes orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." ♪♪