♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the newshour tonight, mass killings in two texas towns. a shooting in allen and a car plows into a crowd of migrants in brownsville. geoff: closing arguments are made in the sexual assault case against former president trump. amna: and as haiti descends further into chaos, many try to flee the country to avoid being killed or kidnapped. >> every day, the gang territory is expanding. they take some more every day, we can't live like that. ♪ >> 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, including leonard and norma clorevine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> >> it was like an ah ha moment. this is what i love doing. early-stage companies have this energy that energizes me. these are people who are trying to change the world. when i volunteer with women entrepreneurs, it is the same thing. i'm helping people reach their dreams. i'm thriving by helping others every day. people who know, know bdo. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support

of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. investigators in texas are still looking for motives in two mass killings this weekend. in one, a gunman north of dallas killed eight people before police killed him. geoff: in the other, a man driving an suv plowed into people waiting for a bus in brownsville. the impact killed at least eight

people and critically injured several more. >> good morning, everyone. thank you for showing up. geoff: tonight, new details on the deadly collision in brownsville, texas. police identifying the driver and revealed his long criminal record. >> george alvarez is a brownsville local with an extensive rap sheet. he has been formally charged and arraigned with eight counts of manslaughter, ten counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. geoff: it happened sunday morning when alvarez ran a red light and struck 18 people waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant center. he tried to flee, but was stopped by others at the scene. authorities say they are waiting on a toxicology report. the fbi is working to determine if the crash was intentional. an eyewitness claims alvarez yelled anti-immigrant slurs to the men at the bus stop, which police could not confirm. they say all of the victims were men, many from venezuela. >> we are working with the venezuelan government right now and we have reached out to other embassies. geoff: the region has seen an

influx of migrants cross the border in recent weeks. >> we hope they will recover because they have families far away who count on them. we crossed mountains, marched, and past migration. it was a long way to come here, and we fought hard. geoff: while the brownsville community dealt with the devastation, texas was already reeling from another tragedy that struck just hours before. a gunman opened fire at a crowded outlet mall in allen, texas saturday evening killing at least eight people. a police officer already on the scene fatally shot the gunman. authorities have not released a motive as the investigation continues. >> i believe in the coming days, the public will be much better informed about why and how this happened, and that will inform us as texas leaders about next steps to take to try and prevent crimes like this from taking place in the future. geoff: according to an army spokesperson, the gunman entered the army in 2008, but was terminated three months later

without completing training. officials report it was for an unspecified mental health condition. police say they are examining racist social media posts they say belonged to the gunman. he was also wearing an insignia on his clothing with an acronym popular with right-wing extremists. the community mourned the loss at a vigil last night. >> we are in shock and are all grieving together. as the healing begins, we will recover. we will not let the actions of one individual impact our resolve. geoff: and this morning, demonstrators gathered at the texas house of representatives to demand action on a proposed gun control measure. frequent shootings across the country have put mass killings on a record pace so far this year. >> ♪ amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ geoff: for years, texas lawmakers have rejected tougher gun restrictions. but today a texas house panel voted to raise the minimum age to purchase an ar-style semi

automatic rifle from 18 to 21. it still faces long odds to pass the full legislature. ar-15's, like the one used in allen, texas, have only become more popular around the country. and more and more, they have been used in mass killing since the sandy hook massacre in 2012. in fact, ar-15's have been involved in 10 of the country's 17 deadliest mass shootings. the washington post spent months examining the rise of the ar-15 in america and the politics and culture surrounding it. todd frankel is an enterprise reporter for the washington post and was part of that series. he joins me now. thank you for being with us. as investigators examine the ideology of this texas gunman and piece together other details, one thing we know is he used an eye -- an ar-15 style assault rifle. many of them were smack us -- worst massacres in the country have the ar-15 in common.

based on your reporting, why is that? todd: some of these shooters have a manifesto where they say they chose the ar-15 because it is especially deadly. the gun was designed as a military weapon. it is incredibly power, it shoots a fast bullet, it can carry ammo up to 30 rounds without reloading. it is a very effective killing machine. unfortunately, most shooters are looking for a tool like that. geoff: the american public has rarely seen the carnage stemming from ar-15's. as you point out, oftentimes it is because the crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish. what does an ar-15 due to its victims? todd: it shoots a very small but very powerful, very fast bullet. when it strikes the human body, there is this blast affect. incredible damage through the internal organs, the bones, compared to what happens with the nine militant billy -- 9mm from a handgun.

that will go through a body without causing the same sort of internal injuries. we did an animation comparing the two. it sounds crazy to say it, but you would much rather be shot by a handgun with a nine millimeter round than an ar-15 round. we hear this from trauma surgeons about the devastating injuries. it is a different weapon, it is not the same as being shot by a handgun. geoff: we talk about the history of the weapon? the family of its creator, eugene stoner, said years ago that he never intended the gun for civilian use, and he never owned one himself. when the gun first hit the market, the nra and other gun rights groups were suspicious of it and did not support it. they didn't want it at their trade. what changed? todd: it was designed by eugene stoner and he designed it for the military. a lot of guns move away from the military into the commercial or consumer market. after the weapons ban expired in the u.s. in 2004, gun companies were wary of the ar-15.

they saw it as a weapon of war. they did not want to make it. . but eventually they saw there was demand, and they started to produce it. it was a thing where everyone is wary about mass-producing this weapon for the public. geoff: now it seems the ar-15 is caught in this cycle. the more it is used in high-profile mass shootings, the more calls there are two it. the more calls there are two it, the more popular it becomes. the more people buy it, the harder it becomes to regulate it. to you see it that way? todd: the problem gun proponents will point out is there are so many of these guns out there now. the ar-15 is the best-selling rifle in america, which is stunning, thinking of america as being a country of hunting rifles. we are no longer that country. we are a country of ar-15's. that is the most popular rifle in america. trying to change policy would be very difficult. but there was a 10 year period

from 1994 to 2004 where assault weapons were banned. we made it through that period. our different ways to look at this problem. it has become more of the cult to deal with the longer it has gone on. geoff: how did the ar-15 become such an important part of their cultural identity of a certain group of gunowners? todd: art of thought was marketing. part of that was the imagery we saw in the post 2004 period, from afghanistan of soldiers coming back. it was the weapon banned. this idea that if you were to own the lives, you would want to own an ar-15. it is the assault weapon. to make a political point, one side saw they could score points by seizing on to this weapon. it is a gun that is a symbol and is very powerful. the outline of it sends a message. sort of replace the musket as the icon of a certain movement. that is -- that has made it more difficult to talk about how to

deal with these weapons. one side sees it as important to america as the musket. geoff: todd frankel, enterprise reporter for the washington post, thank you so much for being with us. todd: thank you. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, a federal employees union is suing president biden and treasury secretary janet yellen over the debt limit. the national association of government employees has 7,500 members. it argues that if the government reaches the debt limit, and defaults, it will have to choose which debts to pay. the lawsuit contends only congress has that authority. russia today launched its largest wave of iranian-made drones in months targeting ukrainian cities. ukraine says it shot down all of the drones aimed at the capital, kyiv. but debris hit some apartments and terrified residents. >> the sounds were terrible, i

had never heard such a thing. then, five minutes later, there were flashing lights and i understood what happened. i was horrified when i realized my house was nearby, at the same window level, just fifty yards away. amna: the attacks came on the eve of victory day in russia, celebrating the defeat of nazi germany in world war ii. in eastern congo, the death toll from a flood disaster has now passed 400 people. torrential rains lashed south kivu province last week, heavily damaging lakeside villages with water and landslides. workers have spent days recovering bodies, some of them in the lake, or buried beneath muddy wreckage. u.n. officials estimate hundreds more are missing. two men were hanged today in iran for blasphemy amid a surge of executions after anti-government protests. rights groups say iran has put to death at least 200 people this year, making it one of the world's top executioners.

last year, the islamic republic executed 582 people, up from 333 in 2021. back in this country, the transportation department says it's working on new protections for airline passengers. u.s. airlines would have to cover meals and hotel rooms if the carrier is responsible for a canceled or delayed flight. thatould be on top of ticket refunds. the pulitzer prizes for 2022 are out, and war in ukraine features prominently. "the new york times" won for covering the russian killings in bucha. "the associated press" won two prizes for its ukraine coverage. in the arts, the fiction prize went to "demon copperhead" by barbara kingsolver and "trust" by hernan diaz. beverly gage won for her biography of the late fbi director j. edgar hoover. and on wall street, stocks mostly drifted as investors wait for major economic reports this week. the dow jones industrial average fell 55 points, to close at

33,618. the nasdaq rose 21 points. the s&p 500 added not quite two points. still to come on the newshour, the el paso mayor discusses the surge of migrants as a controversial immigration order expires . tamara keith and amy walter examine the latest political headlines. the singer-songwriter aoife o'donovan embarks on the latest leg of her musical journey. plus much more. >>his is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and ona state university walterar geoff: the civil case e jean carroll has brought against former president donald trump is in the hands of the jury. lisa desjardins has the details on what comes next. lisa: after two weeks in court, with testimony from carroll and a handful of witnesses, lawyers for both sides presented closing arguments today as jurors weigh whether or not to hold former

president trump liable for sexual assault and defamation. carroll, a former columnist, has accused the president of raping her over two decades ago. in the courtroom today was andrea bernstein, a reporter with propublica who also covers trump legal matters for npr. can you some of the closing arguments we heard today? >> the plaintiff's lawyers stressed that 11 witnesses testified that donald trump sometime in the 1990's, forcibly raped the columnist e jean carroll in the laundry dressing room. and after, she was able to struggle and get away, according to her account, called a friend, who the friend recalled in testimony, she called while she was feeding her kids dinner. than there were a number of other witnesses who corroborated parts of carroll's account. her lawyers argued, in order to

not find trump liable, it is a civil case, the jury would have to disbelieve all 11 witnesses and also disbelieve donald trump when from the infamous access hollywood tape, he talked about grabbing winning -- grabbing women by the genitals and when you are a star, they let you do it. trump's lawyers said the jurors should not conclude anything. they pointed out what they saw as inconsistencies in e. jean carroll's story and suggested the incident never happened. and that in fact, e. jean carroll and the women who corroborated her account concocted it in order to hurt donald trump. lisa: e. jean carroll has presented witnesses, women she said she has talked to and women they say fell into a pattern of sexual assault from the former president. his attorneys deny this and say this is all concocted, that it is political. the product -- the former

president did not appear in court, but we saw someone from his deposition. he was asked interestingly by the attorneys for carroll at one point to look at an archival photo of a time when he and e. jean carroll were at the same party. i want to play what happened when he, by mistake, did not recognize his ex-wife. >> i don't even know who the woman, let's say, i don't know who -- that's marla. >> you say marla is in this photo? >> cat is marla that's my wife. >> which woman? >> here. >> the person you just pointed to was e. jean carroll. lisa: later he defended himself against carroll and her attorney. >> she is accusing me and so are you of rape, and it never took place. i will tell you, i made that statement and i said, it is politically incorrect, she is not my type. that is 100% true. she is not my type. lisa: obviously we are in

unprecedented waters. how do you think that deposition affected the final arguments today? andrea: it came up several times as you can imagine. e. jean carroll's lawyers argued that e. jean carroll was exactly his type. so much his type, he confused her from a photo at that time for his second wife. the fact that trump did not testify, carroll's circled back to at the end of the trial and said he never came here to tell you, the jury, that he did not do this. they also argued, referring again to this access hollywood tape, that trump had boasted in the tape that he did have a tight. and that when you are a star, you let them do it. trump's lawyers called that locker room talk, but carroll's lawyers say, we call this a confession. lisa: you mentioned the jury here, six men and three women.

they have to consider whether there is a preponderance of evidence to support e. jean carroll's case. what does that mean and have you noticed anything about the jury while watching them in court? andrea: the jury was fairly expressionist -- expressionless. but they seemed to attend carefully. trump's lawyer made an impassioned closing statement, pointing out what he's -- what he said as inconsistencies. at the end of the day, the jury watched closely carroll's lawyers on their rebuttal. where he was explaining various pieces of testimony he said trump's lawyers had taken out of context. there did -- and they did seem to be attentively listening. they don't have to find beyond a reasonable doubt. there will be no finding of guilt or innocence. but they it -- but if they do find that the preponderance of the evidence suggest trump did this and find him criminally

liable, this will be the first time a jury of trump's peers have ruled, if you will, on what these accusers have been saying since donald trump's first campaign for president in 2016, that he committed these acts. this will be the first time it has gone to a court of law, been tested, and a jury will find something. they could also find that he is not liable on these counts, and that could come anytime tomorrow after the judge instructs them, which will be first thing in the morning, and they will have the case and will be able to delivery. lisa: in the last few seconds we have, the potential impact here? we are hocking dollar figures? andrea: yes, we are talking dollar figures, it could run well into the millions. how do you'd describe the front runner for the gop if a jury finds him liable? that will be something the whole country will be grappling with, depending on the verdict in this case. lisa: we all appreciate you helping us understand it all. andrea bernstein of pro-public,

thank you so much. andrea: thank you. ♪ geoff: the un security council expressed what it called deep concern over the security and humanitarian crises in haiti. the caribbean nation is in freefall, without effective governance or protection from gangs that routinely terrorize innocent civilians. that has left people reeling from the violence, and others hopeless, determined to leave. special correspondent marcia biggs reports from the capital of haiti, port-au-prince. >> it is a scene of utter chaos. this passport office overrun with patients desperate to make it to the united states. demands for new passports have reportedly gone from 1500 a day to more than 5000. since the launch of a u.s. visa program that the biden

administration is calling humanitarian parole. you need a valid passport just to begin that application process. 20-year-old ange marie has been camped out there waiting her turn for three weeks. she says she doesn't want to betray her country, but she cannot stay. >> every day, the gang territory is expanding. they take some more everyday, we can't live like that. marcia: can you tell me where you are sleeping? >> right in front of me there. marcia: is it scary to be ng he at night? yes. i'idause there is gunfire, and you don't know where it is from. you never know when you are going to be the victim. marcia: victim to a wave of gang violence that has haiti gripped with terror. hundreds of thousands have fled and now remaining residents are taking matters into their own hands. two weeks ago, an angry mob beat and then burned alive more than a dozen suspected gang members. it's fear and frustration born

of a long running economic and humanitarian crisis that worsened in july 2021 when president jovenel moise was assassinated. interim prime minister ariel henry didn't keep his promise to hold elections, and haitian politics have since then fallen apart. now criminal gangs have flourished, where official authorities no longer govern. port au prince is a city held hostage by gangs. we were just talking to some people here on the street and the minute the cameras came out, they were terrified to speak. but for women, the weapon of retribution is often rape. the u.stt on third of women and girls in haiti have been the victims of sexual abuse or violence. 20-year-old sousphanie has been on her own since her mother died last august. her only family is her son, 17th month-old ainslie. his father is a man she had been involved with since she was 12 years old. but she says she never knew he

was in a gang. we have hidden her face for her own safety. >> the owner of the house where i rented a room told me that he didn't like when those type of people come to his house. at that time, i didn't believe him 100%. it's later when i went to sell downtown and i saw him with a bunch of guys with machine guns, that is when i finally totally believed it. that he was in a gang. that night i told him not to ever come back. marcia: but he did come back, with six of his friends. >> the minute they came in the house, they started beating me up. some beat me with a wooden board, some beat me with a gun and some beat me with electrical wires. they asked me how come i wouldn't get back together with him, where did i get that rebellious spirit? then, they raped me. when they finished doing what they were doing, they threw the baby at me and pushed me outside. marcia: they through your baby at you?

was the baby hurt, was the baby crying? >> yes, he was crying. and his leg was injured. marcia: what's going through your mind right now? >> every time i tell this story, it's like, if i felt it again. it's like i relived it again. that is what is in my head right now. marcia: i'm so sorry. >> i was ashamed. i didn't feel like a human being anymore. i didn't want to go out. even people who didn't knew what i had endured, i couldn't look them into their eyes. marcia: for three months, she was homeless. she says if it were not for her son, she would have killed herself. but then recently, a beacon of hope. a local women's shelter unites her with other victims and a psychologist, which she says has helped with the shame. but she still worries that ainslie's father and his friends will come looking for her again. can you go to the police? is there anything that you can do to feel safer?

>> i didn't go to the police because the policemen cannot protect themselves, so they cannot protect me. >> this is where we are right now. the police are no match for the gangs. [00:03:45][5.6] marcia: garry pierre-pierre is the founder of the haitian times, an english-language publication that covers the island nation. >> about 30% to 40% of the police force, either sympathizers or outright members of these gangs. [00:04:07][9.0] -- of these gangs. the police missions have become suicide missions because the gangs are waiting and lying in wait for them. marcia: the u.n. has called for the deployment of an international force but the problem runs much deeper, pierre pierre says. >> what happens next? how do you integrate the gang members into civil society and get them to jobs and really dismantle the gangs? because at the end of the day, it's a socio economic problem that we have that's creating this. marcia: in the meantime, residents living in areas of intense fighting are all but abandoned.

it's just too risky to go in and out. including for us. but we were able to make the trip with jose ulysse. who manages a hospital in one of those neighborhoods. we are on our way to the fontaine hospital which is the last remaining, last standing hospital in cite soleil one of the most violent areas in all of port-au-prince. we are here with a fully armored vehicle because we have to cross several frontlines to get there. we held our breath on this last part of the journey as just down that road lies what's called the deaf crossroads. but once we reached the hospital, an oasis of sorts from the fear. mothers bring their babies for vaccinations and hospital staff does everything from teaching vocational skills to treating gunshot wounds. jose says he has been able to stay open because the majority of the staff are from the community. and because they keep no records or alert police when they treat injuries of gang violence. >> we don't need to know where you come from, why you are here.

no. we don't have questions. no questions asked. you have a bullet in your leg, we remove it, we give you medicine, then go away. marcia: today there are no gunshot victims, but rather the daily medical procedures vital in any community. this woman is having a c-section. anxious relatives wait in the hallway for their loved ones. >> where would you go if this hospital didn't exist? >> we would perish. we would die because it's the only hospital that is left. cite soleil is now an area that is abandoned. you walk in the street, you are afraid. you get to your home, you are afraid. everywhere, we are afraid. we don't live in peace. marcia: but the hospital is a safe haven for even the tiniest patients. haiti has the highest infant mortality rate of any country in the western hemisphere. babies are often born at home or in the street because a trip to the hospital just is not safe.

like this baby, she was born last night, delivered at home with an infected umbilical cord, which untreated, could lead to sepsis and then death. her mother, 17-year-old rose-bianca got her to the hospital, even though she says she is scared even to walk in the streets. >> i am really afraid because of how things are right now. bullets flying in the air from everywhere, and you can't know exactly where it came from. i have to take the street with lots of caution nowadays. marcia: are you scared for the baby? >> yes, i am scared for her a lot. marcia: at our final stop in the hospital, we walked into a room full of little ones. sick and malnourished when they arrived, most were abandoned when their parents were killed or could no longer care for them. now thriving, we asked how long they could stay. they can stay forever, we are told. they are home. as we left the hospital, we

noticed rose bianca cradling her baby girl less than 24 hours old. she had been discharged and was negotiating for a ride home on a motorbike. carefully, she and her sister climb on the back and ride off with her newborn baby into an unknown future. for the pbs newshour, i am marcia biggs in port au prince. haiti. ♪ amna: cities on the u.s.-mexico border are preparing for thursday's lifting of title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed officials to turn away more than 2.7 million migrants over the last three years. ahead of that rule change, el paso has declared a state of emergency. local leaders estimate nearly 2,500 people are already in the city waiting to travel to other parts of the country. shelters are full, leading many

to sleep in makeshift encampments on the streets. joining me now is the mayor of el paso, oscar leeser. welcome to the newshour. thank you for joining us. you are three days away from title 42 ending. what are you expecting to see in el paso in terms of an increase in the number of people arriving? are you compared to manage that? mayor leeser: i keep telling everyone that we need to prepare for the unknown. the unknown is what number is going to be coming over on may 12 after title 42 has been lifted. i did travel to mexico last week and went to the shelters and looked at the shelters. the shelters were empty. the second largest shelter over there, there were only 20 people in there. we went out and looked at the streets. sure enough, there are a lot of them, probably 10,000 to 12,000 people waiting to come in.

they don't want to go in the shelters because they don't want to miss the opportunity to come into the u.s. prior to title 42 expiring. we were told there is a caravan of another 3500 coming that will arrive prior to title 42 expiring. they are all coming with the understanding that if they do get in, but -- that they will have political asylum. the people that have charged them and helped them to get over here, they are giving the information that is not accurate. amna: you have declared a state of emergency. what does that allow you to do differently? what else do you need that you don't have now in the way of support? mayor leeser: the state of emergency gives us the opportunity to do temporary shelter. we opened up two schools that have been closed for a while. we were able to get the two schools to be temporary shelters. that is to help the people that have gone through the proper immigration system and help them get to the next destination, give them temporary sheltering. they will be in the shelter between 24 to 72 hours.

that will help us to activate our civic center, and then use hotels to help families and young kids. it is something important, one of the things we do here is make sure we treat people the way we want to be treated, and make sure we help our asylum-seekers that have gone through the immigration process unite with their family, their friends, and be able to go to the destination of their choice. the reason we are able to do that is once they get an a number, when they go through the immigration process, than they are free to go where they want to go. . we want to make sure we help decompress the system and help people move forward. amna: are you coordinating with other mayors in other cities? as you mentioned, we know most people who come through el paso or other border cities are trying to make their way somewhere else. have other cities reached out, saying, we can help you? mayor leeser: one of the things we do have office of emergency

management, and they are working with ngos across the united states. that's correct, they are not coming to el paso, texas. they are coming to the united states. that is one of the things we want to work with, additional ngos, additional cities, to make sure they can help us and we can help our asylum-seekers. amna: president biden made the decision to send 1500 u.s. troops to the border in support of operations. we hear from a number of republicans, greg abbott among them, that argue the u.s. has what they call open borders. that the administration has not done enough to deter migration, and to enforce border security. do you agree with that? mayor leeser: no, the borders are closed today, they will continue to be closed after title 42 expires. it is important to know that we already have to any 500 military troops that are within the southern border. they are sending additional 1500 to help. not to administer the immigration laws, but to help

with administrative. to help the border patrol do their job. it is important to know that they are not here to implement immigration law, but to support the current border patrol. there is not enough to be able to do what they need to do. it will help them do a lot of the administrative work that needs to be done. amna: we reported earlier on the car crash in brownsville. and no officials are looking for a motive. there are reports that the man who drove his suv into a crowd of recently arrived migrants there had a shouted anti-immigrant remarks. we have not able to confirm that. i'm curious because they saw the same increase in migration as you have been seeing in your city. are you concerned about something similar happening there, or about this vulnerable population that is sleeping in the streets of your city? mayor leeser: number one, our hearts go out to the people who lost their lives and their families. number two, part of that, we had already closed some of the

streets to make sure the asylum-seekers were protected in our community is protected. we have closed the streets. we will continue to close streets as needed. one of the things that is important to us, that we do protect asylum-seekers, but also make sure our communities stay protected. amna: you were born in mexico. i don't know if most people know that. you moved to the u.s. as a child. you are the first elected mayor in el paso history born outside of the u.s. you know very well the unique nature of border communities. i wonder when you step back and look at how we are talking about this moment, how we are facing migration increases across the u.s. southern border, how you view this conversation as it is unfolding? mayor leeser: i view it the same way i think a lot of people view it. we have a job to do as a barda community. as a hoarder community, we have responsibilities to work with the federal government. secretary mallorca's, president biden, they have worked close

with us to make sure we have the resources. they have given us funding, they continue to be able to provide a service. that has been important. as a border community, we have a responsibility. i look forward to continuing to make sure we do the right thing. again, not only for our asylum-seekers, but also the community of el paso, which public safety has always been our number one priority. amna: that is the mayor of el paso, oscar leeser, thank you for your time. we appreciate it. please come back soon. mayor leeser: thank you. you have a wonderful day, ma'am. ♪ geoff: the end of title 42 is just one of the high-stakes issues on the agenda in washington this week. the other is the ongoing showdown over raising the debt ceiling. for analysis of both, we turn to our politics monday team. amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter.

and tamara keith of npr. welcome to you both. this is expected to be a consequential week. title 42 is expected to expire on thursday. the trump era policy that says you can turn migrants away, even if they are seeking asylum here the number of attempted crossings is expected to swell. the white house says they are prepared, but they need more resources. they need more help from congress. how is the white house preparing for this? beyond that, setting expectations with the american people about what is to come? tamara: biden administration is pushing out a message that the border is not open. as the mayor said, they are competing against human smugglers who have been delivering a message for months that it is open season as title 42 goes away. they are expecting that it will be challenging. that it will be difficult. that is why they are sending more national guards to the

border area to assist the border patrol. politically, it is a real challenge. though, political views are so baked in, that it is not clear exactly how this will turn out. republicans are expecting this to be that. they have been saying it is going to be bad. they are going to continue to push a narrative that this is out of control. democrats polling would indicate that immigration is not a top issue or concern for them. certainly the sort of migratiois the challenge is a chaos is not great. chaos is not great politically for the person in the white house. whether theyake th orderly or not is a very big open question. and certainly someone like kyrsten sinema, the senator from arizona, is raising concern they are not ready. geoff: we have that sound, if we can play it now.

i will ask a question on the others. >> two years to prepare for this and did not do so. and our state is going to bear the brunt. and migrants will be in crisis as soon as next week. it will be a humanitarian crisis, because we are not prepared. geoff: how does the white house confront but? it used to be a partisan split. not really among democrats in border states or an independent in a border state. amy: cam is right. this is a polarizing issue. not just in congress but among voters, in terms of the priority that immigration plays, in their view, in their vote. republican saying this is a top priority. democrats, not as big of a priority, unless you are in a border state. the governor of the state of arizona, also a democrat, not quite as pointed as the senator, but basically said we need more help. we know there are democratic mayors around the country saying, we need federal help. that is what most of these folks

are not saying, the federal government needs to give us more money to be able to prepare for this. i do agree, we don't know if this issue is going to transcend this deep divide. is this going to turn into what senator cinema says is an absolute abject humanitarian disaster? is it a few days where it looks chaotic but it somehow becomes less chaotic? ? are we going to potentially see violence or other events happening? that is the bigger question about whether we can see this politically transcending what we know have been pretty hard and track -- hard and fast traditional opinions. arizona is not just a border state. it is a swing state. geoff: how does the biden campaign keep this from becoming a competency issue? tamara: it is an open question. and one other question i have that i don't have an answer to is, will the president of the united states step forward and

deliver this message that the border is not open? or is he going to leave it to the homeland security secretary -- secretary focused on the debt ceiling, anything else, and not but the white house stamp on this? i think the fact that we have not seen the president out there is probably an indication that they don't know how this is going to turn out, and they don't know whether they want the president's fingerprints on it or not. geoff: let's talk about the new abc news poll which finds president biden's approval rating slipping to a new low. more americans than not doubt his mental acuity. . 's support against leading gop challengers is far shakier than four years ago. is this: an outlier or does the white house have reason to be concerned? or are both of things true? amy: they have reason to be concerned regardless of what this pulse us. i think what we are seeing in all of the polling, including that marist poll, is the

president's overall approval rating is in a bad place. whether it is 41% or 39% in this pull. this is not where you want to be as an incumbent going into reelection. traditionally, a job approval rating is about, going into an election, is about one to four points to the final vote the incumbent gets. except what we are also seeing, this poll did not show it, but we have seen in polls in 2022 and recently in 2023, people who somewhat disapprove of biden, included in that significant group of people who say i don't think he is doing a good job, are actually voting for biden or democrats. there are people out there who are not particularly thrilled in the job the president is doing. this is what republicans are counting on. that the option of donald trump is so problematic for these voters who dislike the job the president is doing, that they are willing to support somebody who they don't think is doing a

particularly good job. however, and this is where democrats do get worried, does it still work? it worked and 2022. will it work in 2024? what if trump is not the nominee? that is a print story. our voters -- are voters still going to turn out? that has been the message from democrats. you have to turn out, it is an existential crisis. if not, donald trump is going to be back in the white house. that has been very mobilizing. it has been a constant drumbeat now. geoff: as president biden always says, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. let's talk about the debt ceiling. president biden is set to meet with the top four congressional people. they have not met in their current capacities in person, this is their first time meeting in person to talk about the debt. how is this expected to go? tamara: according to kareem john

pierre, don't call this a debt ceiling negotiation. this is not an negotiation over the debt ceiling. . at is the crisis at hand. geoff: three weeks ago it -- three weeks away from going off the cliff. tamara: this newness it may happen, the cliff may be june 1 orater. there is no vibe from anyone that it is currently in a crisis phase or they can see said cliff in the distance. there is not a sense of urgency. this meeting, based on the white house telling, based on congressional telling, will be people talking about their position, which has been well known for months. the chance of a breakthrough seems pretty low. and a real challenge here is usually with one of the sorts of crises, there -- you can see a face-saving option. uli, there is a face-saving option, they will come to it eventually, they have to do the plumage and p caulking and all of that.

it is not clear what the face-saving option is, particularly given that kevin mccarthy has such narrow control over the house and senate. it is just not clear how they get out of it yet. geoff: both sides want to find a way to declare victory. we are talking about the politics of this. the economics are a different conversation. amy: that is the point. nobody wins in this fight. politically, if we don't go off a cliff, if we don't default on the debt, both sides could come out and say, we got what we want. that's fine. i don't know that voters are particularly interested in giving someone the winner tag and someone the loser tag. right now, it looks bad for everybody involved. and you can see this exhaustion that this game and ship, the kabuki of it, but with the real threat anchoring, is the kind of thing that voters say, this is why we check out from politics? it is the only way, the minority

has leverage to do a lot of the stuff they want to do. but obviously, it comes with a big price. geoff: to give our viewers a sense, we have a sound that characterizes what you both are talking about. >> we're not going to give any politicians, including the president, a blank check to continue to bankrupt the country. >> we've been waiting for months for the republicans to articulate their position. they didn't produce a budget. what they did was produce a ransom note. geoff: they can only go up from here, right? >> this is this phase. i think a lot of people may think this is just a regular old budget crisis, a fight where the government might shut down and we will talk about the lights being turned off. this is different. the stakes are higher with a potential debt default. the global economic stakes are higher. at the moment, the rhetoric is very much similar to what you see ahead of a regular budget figh geoff: five seconds left. >> concur. geoff: very good.

amy walter, tear matter -- and tamara keith, great to see you, as always. >> thank you. ♪ amna: it's not unusual for a singer-songwriter to perform songs written by others. but it is unusual for an artist to perform an entire albuma™s -- album's worth of someone else's material, especially if that someone-else is a giant of the music world. but that is exactly what grammy-winning musician aoife o'donovan is doing on her latest tour. special correspondent tom casciato has this story for our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ tom: a performance by the cincinnati symphony orchestra. that may seem an unlikely place to come upon a singer-songwriter. >> ♪ rose, briar rose, why you

look so sad ♪ tom: but 41-year-old aoife o'donovan's original compositions embrace many musical contexts. her most recent album was described by pop matters as lushly layered and sophisticated connections to contemporary jazz and even classical music. >> ♪ to be born in the age of apathy nothing has got a hold on you ♪ tom: yet for all that, it received a grammy nod in the folk category. when the age of apathy was nominated for best folk album for a grammy award, my first thought was, is that a very reductive way to think about what you do? >> i think actually it is the opposite. i feel like to call somebody a folksinger is just, i think, it encompasses so much more than folk as a genre. to me, it means folk as a genre

-- to me, it means somebody who sings for the people, a bard, a storyteller. tom: like most folk singers, she is expert at singing not only her own songs but other people's as well. which could bring us to her most recent project. >> hello. you all know why you are here, right? tom: but let's not go there quite yet. >> my first instrument was piano. i studied piano at the all newton music school with susan holmes, she was my first piano teacher. >> who is your teacher? >> susan holmes. >> and i love playing piano. i wish that i had taken it more seriously at the time. it's hindsight, i was like, i wish i had practiced piano more and have been a better pianist. but it was a great instrument to start on. tom: here she is at 13, a little hard to see, but easy to hear her, joni mitchell's "urge for going." and i know that record very well.

and i noticed when you're singing it as a teenager at the age when a lot of young players are just trying to imitate. you have got your own phrasing. you're already, like, doing your cover of joni mitchell's "urge for going." >> i think style has always been really important to me, artistic style and trying to find a way to emulate without imitating. and of course, i'm sure i've imitated a ton in my life, and i still do, but trying to find those things that inspire you and then make them your own, i think is deeply important. tom: which does bring us to aoife o'donovan's latest project. a tour performing live the entirety of bruce springsteen's classic acoustic album "nebraska." the songs are famously stark, peopled with characters at war with their own souls. >> and performing this album in its entirety is very emotionally taxing in a way that is different than doing a set of my

own music. you really do have to get into character. tom: there is the moral compromise of the cop in "highway patrolman" who won't arrest his own murderous brother. >> ♪ pulled over to the side of the highway and watched those taillights disappear ♪ tom: there is the sad determination of the young man in "used cars" humiliated to his father's position in life. even the upbeat "open all night" hides a desperation beneath its exuberance. >> ♪ the bus don't dig me so he put me on the night shift ♪ tom: so how does she make these tales by one of music's acknowledged greatest storytellers her own? >> one of the things i like the most about being a musician is just that you can communicate and you can kind of set aside whatever fears you may have and insecurities and say, okay, well, now i'm going to go into this other part of myself and create these new huge emotions

and have these experiences, and then other people are getting to hear that and respond to it. it's really powerful. >> ♪ everything dies, baby, that's a fact ♪ >> i love this record so much because these songs to me feel very timeless. the characters, those people still exist. >> ♪ meet me tonight in atlantic city ♪ >> people are still living hard lives and coming up on hard times and finding reasons to keep on living. and i think that that's what, i don't know, speaks to me so deeply. tom: speaking perhaps most deeply on this night at new york 's bowery ballroom is "my father's house." it is a song in which a man dreams of the comfort his father can provide. >> last night, there was a guy in the front row who, when i started "my father's house," took off his glasses and just proceeded to weep the entire song, like, i mean, really weeping. >> ♪ my father's house shines

hard and bright ♪ >> and it was just so heavy to me. >> ♪ stands like a beacon calling me in the night ♪ >> and that sort of makes me almost cried. >> ♪ calling and calling ♪ tom: soon the man awakens to a world where neither comfort, nor his father, can be found. >> ♪ from across the dark highway where our sins lie under toned ♪ tom: telling his story is the work of a folksinger creating emotion, making someone else's songs her own. for the pbs newshour, i am tom casciato in new york city. >> think you so much. thank you, guys. geoff: she has got a beautiful

voice. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i am amna nawaz. thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> q nod is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with q nod, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of entertainment. and british style. all with q not's white star service. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life.

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♪ christiane hello everyone and welcome to mn poor and company here is what's coming up. -- "amanpour and company" is -- i asked sidney mccain how she is helping the unprecedented number of people facing starvation. also ahead, a coronation fit for a king, but is the monarchy still a good fit for modern-day britain. and with the american perspective, market lamb blur is here to discuss peer get plus, michelle martin talks to tony hassan back about the proposed a law to protect women who killed their abusers. ♪