♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on "the newshour" tonight -- over a million people are displaced and hospitals face a critical lack of supplies as gaza prepares for an israeli invasion aimed at destroying hamas. geoff: house republican infighting stymies efforts to

elect a speaker and keeps congressional business at a standstill. amna: and the murder of a six year old muslim boy in illinois leaves arab and muslim communities on edge, in the wake of the war in the middle east. >> we've seen a week of horrific anti-muslim, anti-palestinian rhetoric and it has culminated in the loss of this young boy's life. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including -- leonard and norma klorfine, and koo and patricia yuan. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind and yes, i am responsible for the user

interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward, i think that's the most rewarding thing. 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 contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to "the newshour." another night of israeli airstrikes in gaza, and hamas rocket fire into israel, as its massive invasion force sits on the border, poised to strike. at the far southern end of gaza, the main border crossing with egypt remains closed as aid waits to go in to help support palestinians and to allow foreigners in gaza to leave. geoff: meantime, the combined death toll is now nearly 4100, with almost 2800 palestinians killed and more than 1400 israelis killed, mostly in the october 7 hamas terror attacks. and "the newshour" can confirm that 2000 u.s. troops have been to told to be ready to deploy in response to the war. leila molana-allen again begins

our coverage tonight. leila: packing up and shipping out. israel continues calling up army reservists by the hundreds of thousands to fight what it promises will be a devastating retaliatory war against hamas. since yesterday we've seen preparations for this conflict start to roll out on a massive scale, tanks and artillery rolling down the highway, on civilian trailers commandeered by the army, in their thousands. they're going to amass on the southern gaza border, putting on a huge show of force as they prepare for an almighty battle. all those vehicles, and soldiers, need fuel to run on. yaarit usually manages this gas station on the southern highway. it has been closed since the attacks, like other shops and restaurants across the country, with all its staff called up to fight. there's no one to work. so she's come to staff the checkout counter and keep it open. several of yaarit's friends were murdered in the attacks.

as her country mourns and plans its vengeance, she says she wants to do her part. yaarit: it's like they came into my house and shot me. that's really how it feels. i came here to provide service for soldiers and people in spite of my fear and worries. leila: like so many others here, yaarit is determined to fight back, but terrified of what that fight may bring. yaarit: this is a war of uncertainty. we won't be the same after it. there's the life we lived before, and the life that we live now after what happened. leila: as bus after bus of soldiers rolls past on its way to the front line, they steel themselves for what awaits. having beaten back hundreds of hamas fighters after a long, brutal fight on the border with gaza, as israeli soldiers carried out the grim job of clearing victims homes, they found a new source of terror. in the villages that were attacked by hamas on saturday, the israel defense force found a huge cache of weaponry, thousands of pieces, and they

suspect that hamas planned a much longer fight. scattered amidst the carnage -- hand grenades; anti-tank mines; artillery rounds; north korean-manufactured rocket propelled grenades; improvised rocket launchers. and, vitally, iranian-made mortar rounds, the first material evidence that iran is directly supplying weaponry to hamas in this fight. >> this is made in iran, no doubt about it. we knew they had mortars, but these iranian mortars, this is the first time we've seen them in this battle. leila: it's taken bomb squads more than a week to safely disarm all these munitions. and now here they sit, deep in an israeli base, a testament to the sheer scale of the firepower hamas has stockpiled. as israel plans its attack on the miles-long network of hamas tunnels that lie beneath gaza,

its soldiers can only imagine how much more awaits them there. but sitting above those weapon-stacked tunnels are defenseless civilians. for days, crowds of palestinian dual nationals have waited anxiously at the rafah border crossing with egypt. with gaza under constant bombardment and under siege, this is their only escape route. journalist qassem al-katharna holds american citizenship. qassem: this is war in gaza, this is war in the people, the people who are suffering, not the military. you have to leave your mother, your sisters your neighbors -- it's the worst travel in my life, to leave right now. leila: mahmoud and his daughter hold swedish nationality. they've been trying to get out of gaza since saturday. mahmoud: my daughter saw people die, saw children die. we have been sleeping here at the crossing point. there is shelling from every side and every corner. leila: the rafah border crossing in southern gaza is controlled

by egypt. it's a vital link between gaza and the rest of the world. but it was shut down nearly a week ago after being hit by an israeli air strike. since then, no one has been allowed to leave, and desperately needed humanitarian aid has stopped trickling in. u.s. officials hoped the crossing would open today for a few hours, but talks with israel and egypt to reopen rafah have so far failed. sameh shoukry is egypt's foreign minister. min. shoukry: the israeli government has not taken a decision that leads to the possibility of opening the rafah border crossing from gaza's side. leila: a few miles north of rafah, in the city of khan younis, there is no let up in the israeli bombardment. before the war the city was home to about 400,000 palestinians. now more than 1 million after israel ordered people to evacuate south. with hundreds of thousands displaced, a fast-growing humanitarian crisis has erupted.

these men do what they can to feed fellow civilians. with no fuel left thanks to the blockade, they cook with firewood. mohammed: there is no stove, and we barely can find firewood. i kept telling people they have to wait to eat. leila: against this backdrop, secretary of state antony blinken was back in israel today after meeting with leaders across the middle east to try and stop the conflict spreading through the region. but speaking to israel's defense minister yoav gallant today, he emphasized u.s. support was rock-solid. sec. blinken: you know our deep commitment to israel's right and indeed its obligation to defend itself and to defend its people. leila: tensions are high on the israeli border with lebanon. the militant group hezbollah released video of themselves destroying israeli surveillance cameras.

prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressed the israeli parliament today. pm netanyahu: i have message to iran and hezbollah don't test us on northern border. don't get back to the mistake that you did once. because today the price that you will pay will be more expensive. leila: as violence escalates, the state department has began evacuating american citizens from israel by sea. that violence is escalating fast. today saw hundreds more rockets fall on both sides of the gaza border and exchanges of fire across the northern border with lebanon even as iran warned the country might retaliate against israel even before an invasion of gaza. geoff: you were near gaza today, give us an idea of what the preparations for the israeli ground invasions look like. leila: a staggering amount of armor and artillery shipped.

hundreds of thousands of soldiers called up, walking down the highway with packs, jumping into jeeps, shipped two different border posts. also evacuations because these areas have already been hit with so many rockets and now there will be a full-scale war and they need to get people out. some people willing to go, some people desperate to stay, saying where will i go? geoff: what are the options for gaza and the people trying to escape? leila: there are two issues here, the first is what to do right now with the humanitarian crisis brewing in the south of gaza. people were told they had to move to the south of gaza, that's where they would be safe. even as they started to move a couple days ago, convoys were hit on the road as families try to flee. they were told to go to the south and that there would be a humanitarian zone. they approached it and there was a strike on the rafah crossing. now the hospital there has taken

-- has been told to evacuate. the biggest city is being struck every day though hundreds of thousands have evacuated there. this is not sustainable, they need to find a way to make these people safe and find somewhere they can go and stay there. the next issue is what happens if there is a full ground invasion? currently egyptians say no way they will open the crossing for everyone, only for nationals. -- only for foreign nationals. that hasn't happened yet. if they can get palestinians with foreign passports out that would be a significant reduction, thousands could get to safety. can they build a huge refugee camp around the crossing? egypt would have to agree, the un would have to get involved. great concern. they are ready -- already million palestinians living in 1.5 million refugee camps and they don't want another one. finally, the existential issue, people are concerned this will be a version of ethnic cleansing that if people leave gaza, they , will never be allowed to come back and they will lose their

land and they are terrified. geoff: leila, thank you. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz with "newshour west." stephanie sy is on assignment. an update now to our top story tonight... president biden will travel to israel on wednesday in a show of support for the u.s. ally. biden will also meet with arab leaders in jordan to discuss humanitarian aid. a 6-year-old palestinian-american boy was laid to rest in illinois after police say he was fatally stabbed by his landlord. his mother was also seriously injured, but is expected to survive. police believe the man targeted his tenants because of their muslim faith, in the wake of the israel-hamas war. the justice department has opened a federal hate crime investigation.

the biden administration has reached a settlement with migrant families separated the border under a policy under president trump. if agreed by a judge, they will have temporary legal status and prevent similar policies for eight years. the homeland security secretary said this will ensure the prior practice of separating families does not happen again. brussels under its highest level terror alert tonight after two swedes were fatally shot in the belgian capital. police sealed off the neighborhood. the gunman is still at large. the shootings happened about three miles from a stadium where thousands of soccer fans were attending a match between belgium and sweden. poland's opposition parties appear to be on the verge of ousting the country's ruling conservatives. turnout in sunday's election was at an all-time high after eight years of divisive policies. the centrist opposition celebrated as the preliminary results came in in their favor. final results are expected tomorrow. meanwhile, voters in ecuador

have chosen center-right candidate daniel noboa to be their next president. the 35-year-old heir to a banana empire will be the country's youngest leader ever. supporters celebrated on top of cars after sunday's run-off and waved flags in the streets of guayaquil. in his victory speech, noboa vowed to rebuild ecuador's economy amid a surge of drug-related violence. mr. noboa: i want to thank all the people who have been part of a new, young, unlikely political project, whose goal was to give the country back its smile. to provide education to the youth and provide jobs to the people. tomorrow we start work for this new ecuador, we start working to rebuild a country seriously battered by violence, by corruption and by hate. vanessa: the u.s. supreme court reinstated biden adminstration regulations on ghost guns -- self-made firearms that are difficult to trace. today's temporary order reverses lower court rulings that

exempted two internet sellers of gun parts from the rules. the regulations will remain in effect while legal challenges continue. and, a passing of note -- actress suzanne somers died sunday at her home in california after a 23-year battle with breast cancer. somers was best known as the effervescent chrissy snow on the sitcom "three's company." later, she became a spokeswoman for thigh-master, and wrote dozens of books on health and wellness. suzanne somers was 76 years old. still to come on "the newshour" -- the war between israel and hamas raises major questions about diplomacy in the region. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. a new translation of the iliad into modern language reinforces its relevance, and much more.

>> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the house of representatives is entering a third week with no fulltime speaker for the first time in our country's history. the republican majority is set to meet again tonight. there speaker nominee jim jordan of ohio will look to sway dozens of colleagues who just voted against him last week. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is at the capitol. house republicans are planning a floor vote tomorrow afternoon. how close is congressman jim jordan to securing the votes he needs? lisa: he has a ways to go, but the meeting tonight could be critical in determining what happens for him. house republicans went home exhausted by their own indecision last week and have returned with a little more rest. the ones i have seen have a little more spunk in their step but they still aren't saying much different than last week. there was a time when mr. jordan

spoke to reporters earlier today. mr. jordan: the best way we can help the american people is get the house open. we can't do that until we get a speaker. so, let's get a speaker tomorrow and get back to work for the american people and help our our dear, and closest friend, the state of israel. >> are you preparing for this to go multiple rounds tomorrow? mr. jordan: we're preparing to get a speaker tomorrow. lisa: that was my colleague rachel scott from abc news. let's look at the math problem. this is what it comes down to. what mr. jordan needs to become speaker is about 217 votes in his favor. if he gets that, he would win. that is plan a, but plan b was how mr. mccarthy became speaker, he needs 213 votes but with opponts voting present. not voting for someone else but voting "present." how many votes does mr. jordan have now? end of last week, 152. the news today is one by one,

jim jordan has been able to reverse some of his opponents, getting some support today. that's something steve scalise was not able to do. an example, ann wagoner of missouri is a diehard steve scully supporter but she came out with a statement today saying jim jordan allayed her concerns about keeping government open with a conservative number for the budget. jim jordan was one of the architects of the government shutdown idea. geoff: if the congressman can't get to 217 votes, what happens? lisa: he could withdraw, but i think it's more likely he would try to keep going as kevin mccarthy did. at some point it could become intractable. some are saying it is time to vote in for more powers for speaker pro tem patrick mchenry, and there's discussions about whether democrats and moderates will get together. i don't think there is momentum around the republican party for that yet. geoff: thanks as always. lisa: you are welcome.

♪ geoff: a federal judge in washington imposed a narrow gag order on former president donald trump in the election subversion case against him. it bars mr. trump from targeting special counsel jack smith and his team, as well as court staff and potential witnesses. it does not prevent him from criticizing the justice department. npr justice correspondent carrie johnson was in the courtroom today and is with us. this partial gag order, how does it work and what does it cover? carrie: it covers some of what the justice department asked for but not all of it. as you mentioned, former president trump on the campaign trail and free to criticize current president joe biden and the justice department, and free to say things about washington, d.c., where he is scheduled to go on trial in 2024.

but former president trump will not be allowed to attack the special counsel or any member of his team. he will not be allowed to attack any courthouse staffers or workers and he will not be allowed to attack potential witnesses in the case. people like former attorney general bill barr and former joint chiefs chairman mark milley among others. trump can attack the judge, and he has continued to do so. even after the gag. geoff: did the judge say what would happen if trump or others violate the gag order? carrie: the judge set out a broad continuum, from a stern warning or financial penalties to possible home detention or even incarceration before trial. but she didn't say how she would escalate that or what she would do if trump or any of the lawyers in the case violated

some of the rules. she did say she would be willing to impose some sanctions, we just don't know what yet. geoff: remind us why this was necessary, why the special counsel requested the gag order in the first place. carrie: let me take you back to the day after former president trump was arraigned on four felony charges in d.c. one day later he posted on social media, if you go after me i am coming after you. since that time, he has attacked special counsel jack smith, calling him deranged, calling his lawyers thugs, he has called the judge a radical obama hack. he has said firmer -- former joint chief chairman mark milley potentially should be executed or face execution. he has beat up former attorney general bill barr. a lot of criticism for mike pence as well. all those people are likely to be witnesses against him at this trial. the judge and justice department were concerned about witness intimidation and damage to the

administration of justice and tainting the jury pool in d.c. geoff: donald trump has already blasted the gag order, here is a bit of what he had to say in iowa today. mr. trump: this is weaponry being done because joe biden is losing the election and losing very badly to all of us in the polls, he is losing badly. what they don't understand is i am willing to go to jail if that is what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again. geoff: donald trump's attorneys have said they plan to appeal, they have said the gag order is antithetical to his first amendment rights. what does the law say? carrie: there's not a lot of law on this at the supreme court. we haven't had cases where defendants have been gagged pending trial and cases have gone all the way up to the highest court in the land. what's clear is the judge that will preside over this next year

has said just because you are running for president doesn't mean you have unfettered first amendment rights. donald trump is also a criminal defendant and is not supposed to influence witnesses who might testify against him. geoff: carrie johnson, always a pleasure. carrie: thank you. ♪ amna: the brutal murder of a six-year old palestinian-american boy, named wadea al-fayoume, on saturday has left a community grieving, and fearful about growing anti-islamic sentiment during the israel-hamas war. his father spoke shortly before his son's funeral today. >> i am here because i am the kid's father. not because i'm political, or religious or anything. i am the father of a child whose rights were violated. i hope this wakes us all up. amna: i'm joined by edward ahmed mitchell, a civil rights attorney and national deputy executive director of the council on american-islamic

relations. welcome. wadea was buried today. he just turned six a few weeks ago. tell us about him. edward: this young boy was like any other young boy. he loved sports, drawing, his family. he was a young man with a promising future that was stolen from him and an act of anti palestinian and anti muslim hate. i wish i could say that our organization was surprised by this, but we're not. we've seen a week of horrific anti muslim, anti palestinian rhetoric and it has culminated in the loss of this young boy's life. amna: tell me about his community. they live about 40 miles outside of chicago in plainfield. what are you hearing from folks? edward: i think everyone is shocked and stunned. obviously they've been horrified to see the violence happening overseas impacting israelis and palestinians and others but for it to come home and impact them directly was not something they expected. so i think everyone's rallying around the family trying to support them, and also sending a

message that this is the danger of anti muslim and anti palestinian hysteria, and we cannot let this happen. no one else should have to go through what this young boy's family is going through right now. amna: it has been reported the little boy was stopped 26 times. his mother, 12 times. she survived and is in the hospital recovering. the sheriffs office said the man charged was their landlord, who targeted them because they are muslim. the justice department says it is opening a federal hate crimes investigation. what is your reaction? is that welcome news? edward: the fbi is doing the right thing. this absolutely does appear to be a hate crime. the landlord interestingly enough, was previously friendly to the family, and even help to build a treehouse for the boy. but then over the past week became furious over what he was seeing in the news. he went to the apartment and started an argument with the mother and said muslims needed to die and tried to kill her and when she managed to get away he killed her son instead.

this is clearly a hate crime and the fbi should act accordingly. amna: we've seen statements from the president and first lady, the vice president, condemning the attack saying hate has no place in america. we've also seen statements largely from republicans, including ron desantis, saying the u.s. should reject all palestinian refugees at this time. what kind of impact do those statements have on the general public? edward: i would say the american muslim community has been extremely disappointed with the statements we've heard not only from people on the political right but also the political left. there's been a week of anti muslim and anti palestinian rhetoric. almost seems like we're back to the years after 9/11. we've seen just the complete annoying of palestinian suffering, we've seen hysteria about suppose it -- supposed muslims and palestinians in our country. and that has consequences. so i'm happy to see president biden and others condemning this sort of violence and sort of

hate, but they need to speak up for all human life, all palestinian lives and say that this is always unacceptable. we should not have to welcome refugees from gaza. we should be protecting the people of gaza so they can stay there in their homes, and not being forced out of their homes in the israeli government's bombing campaign. but if refugees do come here, certainly they should be welcomed. amna: there is a generation of muslim and arab americans who know how fast and dangerously anti-islamic and anti-arab rhetoric can take hold and spark violence. we saw that after 9/11 in the united states. israel has called the attack by hamas their 9/11. have you seen anything that leads you to believe there could be more tax like what killed this little boy? edward: if anti palestinian and anti muslim rhetoric and hysteria that we saw over the past week continues for weeks to come i'm concerned about what would happen. but i do want to emphasize one thing. the american muslim community is not going back to the years of the post 9/11 america. we were subjected to discrimination and bigotry. islamophobia was out of control. we are not going back to that we are a strong community, a common -- confident community and no

one is going to bully us into being silent about the sovereignty of the palestinian people or not going to our mosques or praying or living our lives. we are going to carry on god willing, we would just encourage our neighbors to speak up for the safety of all people. and we encourage politicians especially to do that. amna: for folks who are fearful as a result of this attack, what is your message? edward: be safe, be vigilant, be cautious, but carry on. be an activist and worshiper of god, to what you would normally do, be careful. and we should be doing that all the time given all the threats that exist here and around the world. but we cannot let anti palestinian or anti muslim extremism scare us away from doing what is right and living our lives. amna: edward, thank you so much for your time. edward: thank you. ♪

geoff: the hamas terrorist attack into israel shook the middle east and threatens to expand far beyond gaza. nick schifrin examines the regional consequences, as well as efforts to confront a humanitarian and hostage crisis in gaza. nick: in the last 5 days, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken has visited 7 countries across the middle east, one of his most intense regional diplomatic efforts. the goals are to prevent the war from expanding, gain release for hamas's american hostages and coordinate across the region on humanitarian aid. to discuss all that, we get two perspectives -- francis ricciardone was a career american diplomat with extensive experience in the middle east, and was u.s. ambassador to egypt during the george w. bush administration. and hanin ghaddar was a journalist in lebanon, and has written extensively about hezbollah. she's now a senior fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. thank you very much both of you. officials tell me it is largely

egypt that is blocking the opening of the rafah crossing through which gazans would leave gaza and aid would enter. why would egypt be resisting? francis: the egyptians have a long and complicated history with gaza and the palestinian authority and israel and the united states over this. this is not a sudden problem or new with this flareup. it's at least a 16-year-old war. you can argue when the war began. the egyptians have serious national security interest in at least containing gaza, but they have wanted much more than that over the years. it's not enough in their view to simply contain the people of gaza and the gaza problem. in the long run, a two state solution is what they have always favored.

the israelis pulled out their occupation and worked to seal gaza off. it became u.s. policy working with egypt to seal the border and it was u.s. policy to promote elections in gaza against egyptian and israeli warnings, which resulted in hamas coming to power. in great irony. egyptians do not like hamas, they see it as a wing of the muslim brotherhood and a national security terrorist threat to them. in the short run, they don't want hamas bleeding into egypt. in the longer strategic run, they do not want egypt to be the solution to the lack of a palestinian state for gaza. they don't want a transplantation of the population of gaza to egypt. nick: why should the security and strategic imperatives block egypt being more helpful when it comes to humanitarian aid? francis: probably for much of

the same reason israelis are not about to open theorder. the egyptians, as i understand, are prepared to have some sort of carefully managed opening to let some people out. it sounds like that is happening and i expect it will be limited and carefully controlled. nick: hanin, tickets to the northern border with lebanon. what is the likelihood of hezbollah opening a second front? hanin: they are staying within the rules that were set after the 2006 july war with israel. they haven't attacked israel beyond the northern border, military posts, radar, communications. they don't want to risk losing the benefits they have reaped from this war. so far, the gains are much higher than the losses and they don't want to change this

equation. if they go into the t calculations today is these gains are still vulnerable. they haven't been translated in two diplomatic gains internationally. they don't want to risk them until they have to until this , turns into an existential war. the hezbollah leader has not said a word yet and this is telling. it means they are still watching, observing, liberating -- deliberating next steps but haven't made a decision to go full scale war. iran has hezbollah's strongest card, in lebanon. they don't want to lose it. they have missiles pointed at israel and they are much stronger as a threat. if they use them they will lose them and they know that. they could be exposed to a big war without any guaranteed

victory they can claim. nick: the u.s. has moved its largest aircraft carrier off the coast with israel and another ie mediterranean. does that deter lebanese hezbollah? hanin: yes, i don't think the calculations included such a strong response by the u.s. by their statements, they understand there is a war that would involve the u.s. they understand it was something they were not expecting or that they would ignore. geoff: let's zoom out, u.s. officials tell me one of the main goals to secretary blinken's travel is to get hostages out, especially american hostages. the idf said there are over 199 hostages being held by hamas in gaza, including qatar, egypt, hamas and israel, a regional push. even if you don't know the details, how would those conversations be going right now that the secretary of state is leading?

francis: in the first place there have to be channels for the conversations and i have to hope the channels exist. those probably are through egyptian intelligence and security channels that did exist. perhaps qatar had them or at one point the turks had them. i have to presume that's why the secretary is trying to activate those channels, to get word through to them somehow. then the question becomes what to say, what to induce them beyond public statements of cease-and-desist. nick: u.s. policy toward the region for years was focused, in the words of one senior u.s. official, keeping the region off of the president's desk. more recently, the u.s. has been focused on normalizing relations between israel and saudi arabia. do you believe the normalization effort is right now at the least

frozen? hanin: at the very least frozen. absolutely. it's apparent this is one of the main goals or benefits iranians have reaped from this war with hamas, whether it was intentional or not. this is something the iranian regime is exporting today. they realize it's not just the normalization between israel and saudi arabia, it is what it represents. a treaty takes the region in a different way in terms of the new middle east led by efforts in the west, more economic focus and more linking israel and the gulf to india. this is more an economic link that is mainly isolating iran

and its proxies, and iran got the message how isolated they are today from the new middle east or the middle east going in the saudis today are in an. position where they cannot really ignore what is happening and continue normalization efforts. something has to give before they go back. it is at least frozen and everybody in the region sees it that way. nick: thank you very much to you both. hanin: thank you very much. ♪ geoff: from the house speaker race to new fundraising hauls in the 2024 campaign for the white house, there's some big election news to break down with our politics monday team. that's amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. lots to talk about, glad to have you both here.

jim jordan is shoring up support ahead of the speakership vote tomorrow. what is the word from the white house about a potential house speaker jim jordan? when steve scalise was the nominee for one or two days, democrats said he was someone they could work with. tamara: it is not we can work with this guy. president biden was asked about the possibility of a jim jordan speakership about 10 days ago and he was like there are other people i would have an easier time working with. but i will try is basically the message. i checked white house visitor logs and jim jordan has not been to the white house during the biden presidency. he went to the white house a lot during the trump presidency, including to get an award from trump at the end, and various meetings and other things. he hasn't been to the white house during the biden presidency for things like a christmas party or congressional picnic, it is just not a thing, there is no relationship. however, i've spoken to people who have known biden for years

and say he will figure this out, he will figure out how to work with whoever he has to work with. let's remember jim jordan is actively investigating president biden and pursuing an impeachment against president biden and has basically railed against every budget deal ever and now is potentially the person who the white house will have to deal with to keep the government functioning. this could be a real challenge for the white house in terms of governing. geoff: there's the question of can jim jordan get these 217 house votes and the additional question of should he? should he be house speaker, should someone who actively tried to overthrow the election and coordinated with donald trump behind the scenes to sort joe biden's win, should he lead the republican party and in the line of succession? what does that say about the republican party? tamara: that's the question. if you go into the republican conference and had a vote completely anonymous and said how many of you really want to

-- want donald trump as our nominee, the majority of the conference would say no, we want somebody else. they will not say that publicly. they will say it privately, same thing about jordan. publicly, they are in this place they have been really since the trump era. you make a decision to go against that wing of the party, you vote for impeachment or say something on the campaign trail or speak up and out against someone like donald trump, and you are punished in a primary or basically told we are not interested in you. if you are part of that wing, i would call them and they would call themselves the governing wing of the party versus the -- call them the trump skeptics versus the people who really like donald trump, the diehards -- the skeptics have a choice in front of them. they either say we will not pick jordan.

we do not know who is next. we know nobody else can get to 217 so we will live in this chaos. the government literally not able to function for the foreseeable future. or we can all get behind jordan, who in the short term will allow congress to function, but in the long term we will probably be back where we've always been, which is getting in a fight to keep the government open because jordan is not going to be particularly interested in negotiating with the reality, a senate still controlled by democrats and a white house. that's where that wing finds themselves. they say we want to govern and get things done and we don't want more chaos, and yet the people they are supporting publicly, getting behind, even though privately they are not happy with them, are the people making the chaos a reality. geoff: using amy's point of the short-term, long-term, i understand you spoke to a

democratic consultant who said this could be great for democrats in the long term. tamara: democrats care about governing so in the short term it is problematic to be facing a shutdown right before thanksgiving. however, the campaign ads will write themselves is what this consultant was telling me. they will be able to say look at this extreme speaker of the house. here are these republicans who claim to be moderates who come from suburban districts that joe biden won in 2020. this person claims to be a moderate and is following the orders of an extreme maga republican involved in january 6 and try to overturn the election and all of these other things. they're going to try to paint, and probably have an easy time of it, paint all of these republicans running for reelection in 2024 as part of that side of the party. geoff: a house speaker does more than just preside over the

house, he or she is expected to raise a ton of money and kevin mccarthy was a phenomenal fundraiser. something like $22 million the past summer for the republican pac that helped members of congress. jim jordan doesn't have a track record for legislating or raising money. amy: he has raised money for himself but in terms of getting institutional donors, institutional donors are the same people who right now are trying to organize around an alternative to donald trump, who are funding the super pac's keeping folks like tim scott and ron desantis in the game right now. they would like to see someone other than jim jordan. they did not mind kevin mccarthy. they supported paul ryan. they gave money to paul ryan and john boehner. it will be hard for them to write checks to jordan especially if they think the house will flip anyway. there's only a five seat

majority republicans have. this may give democrats the advantage to win. they may be able to hedge their bets and say even though they are in the majority right now, we are not going to give the same kind of money because they will not be here long. geoff: speaking of fundraising, we got third quarter fundraising totals for the 2024 crop of nominees to include president biden, you see him at the top with $71 million. mike pence raised $3.3 million . what we don't see is his campaign is apparently $600,000 in debt and he had to lend himself $150,000 of his own money. it reflects the lack of traction he is getting in the primary. the fundraising totals in many ways reflect the polling challenges. tamara: if you look at the graphic, it looks like there are two incumbents and then everyone else, and they are way behind.

someone like mike pence has struggled to gain traction in the primary, struggle to gain traction with voters because anti-trump republicans see him still as the loyal lieutenant who talked about broad shoulders and looked dewy-eyed at donald trump for four years until one day he crossed him, pence would say he stood up for the constitution, and he became an apostate. he is a man on an island. he doesn't have constituency in the republican primary. he's making a go at it, trying to get evangelical voters, talking about conservatism versus populism and these big ideas that probably would have gone over pretty well in 2012. geoff: are we at the point where republican candidates not named trump, desantis and haley, need to get out of the race? amy: even desantis and haley don't have a lot of money. that's the reality right now.

if you look at where we were at this point in 2019, there were a number of candidates who raised a lot of money. a lot more money than this tier of candidates. it tells you where the enthusiasm if the party is. it is with donald trump. this isn't about the fact there is too many candidates or they are splitting the vote. the candidates -- the voters are not just telling pollsters they are supporting donald trump, the fact they are not donating to candidates is another show of the lack of enthusiasm for an alternative. geoff: we will see you back here next monday. ♪ amna: achilles and hector. helen of troy and king priam. the world of "the iliad," one of the foundational works of western literature and thought. it's an old story, set amid a

long-ago, forever war that continues to resonate in our time, and it's been given new life in a translation by distinguished classical scholar, emily wilson. she spoke with jeffrey brown in philadelphia recently for our arts and culture series, "canvas." jeffrey: images of the ancient greeks from artifacts in the penn museum at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia. emily: i have an odyssey side of my body and an iliad side of my body. this is the bow of odysseus. jeffrey: images of the ancient greek epics, on the body of penn professor, emily wilson. emily: i have an owl on my back for athena. i have rosy-fingered dawn for the odyssey. i have the loom for the loom of penelope. i have the octopus for the survival and change, changeableness of odysseus. i have the thunderclouds for zeus. i have a ship for the ships of the iliad. and i have the immortal horses of achilles. jeffrey: this is rather extraordinary. you're, you're really living this world.

emily: i live it. i want other people to live it through the translations but i live with homer all the time. jeffrey: now 51, she's been living it a long time. that's wilson at age 8 reenacting a scene from the odyssey. in 2017 her translation of that epic -- the story of the hero's return home from the trojan war -- gained widespread acclaim. remarkably, it was the first ever by a woman into english. and two years later wilson won a macarthur genius award for "bringing classical literature to new audiences in works that convey ancient texts' relevance to our time." now she's translated homer's "iliad", set amid the war itself -- greeks fighting trojans and one another. the great warrior achilles battling his enemies and, it seems at times, himself. in the introduction you call it "the most gripping and heartbreaking work of literature i know." in what way? emily: it's so focused on very

intense human emotions. the first word of the poem in greek is "menin," which means a sort of superhuman kind of rage. jeffrey: anger beyond anger. emily: terrible rage. and so this terrible cycle of rage and grief that perpetuate one another is absolutely at the center of the poem. and also the mortality of the human body is so central to the poem. so you are always feeling things and learning about how people feel things, and about the glittering brightness of our lives while we're alive and how short that is. jeffrey: "the iliad," perhaps composed in the 7th century bc, was attributed in antiquity to the blind poet, homer. it stems from an oral tradition in which bards performed their work, often playing a musical instrument. it uses a regular pattern of sound, or meter, called dactylic hexameter. emily: it is a long, short, short. [speaking greek]

the entire poem has that regular music all the way through. jeffrey: english translators -- there have been more than 100 of them over 400 years -- have used a wide variety of approaches and poetic styles. emily: among the women began the , keening, cradling in her hands the murderous head of hector. jeffrey: wilson wanted the music of homer, but in a traditional english form and -- think shakespeare -- chose iambic pentameter. emily: one thing that really drew me to the task of translation was the frustration i lt in teaching homer in translation was the fact that most modern translations don't have meter. this is a poem. it's not an action movie. it has a regular rhythm to it. i was talking before about the intensity of the emotions. if the reader doesn't both feel the rhythm and feel those feelings, then the poem isn't working the way the greek poem does. the greek poem makes you feel

the clarity of the narrative and the intensity of those feelings all the time. jeffrey: now if you do like action films -- no poetic meter here -- there's brad pitt as achilles in the 2004 film, roy." in fact, wilson points out, there's a continuing interest, even a mini-renaissance, in ancient stories and myths, including bestselling novels like madeline miller's "circe," now being adapted to an hbo series. the acting company, a new york-based theater group, recently launched a national tour of an adaptation of "the odyssey" using wilson's translation. and wilson herself, of course, continues to teach the classics to a new generation of students. what is the most important thing for you to convey to young, especially young students when you're trying to interest them? emily: just the humanity of people, of human beings always, including in the very ancient past. that, of course, we come to a place like this and we sort of

see the differences between us. they fought wars not with guns and bombs but with spears and arrows. and yet so much of the feelings are the same. there's the sense of grief and pain have always been part of human society. jeffrey: that things are different but the same. emily: things are different and things are the same. yes, both of those truths are essential. jeffrey: is there still a place for homer and the classics amid today's culture wars? wilson thinks they're needed as much as ever. emily: we tend to be very much focused on our world. it's the only world. it's not the only world. there are more worlds. and antiquity shows us something about how many worlds there are, how many different ways a human being can be. and then at the same time there are these enormous resonances between the iliad and our own time. i mean, this focus on violence, the intense partisanship, conflict between not only greeks versus trojans but members of the same community living closely together and hating each other. jeffrey: all this in our daily news. emily: all this in our daily news. i mean, it's not exactly the same, and yet it has this resonance.

jeffrey: how do you think about your own role as a translator of ancient epic? emily: i want to open up more conversations. i mean, i think history is all about debate, and literature is all about debate. i want to create translations that have enough clarity in the storytelling and enough vigor in the sound and characterization that they can arouse debate and make people think, make people want to talk to each other and discuss what we actually think about achilles? what do we think this story is all about? i want the reader to be both swept up in the story and also want to talk about it and feel there might be some questions, and that we're allowed to argue with each other. ideally not, not like achilles and agamemnon slaughtering each other. but argue with each other in productive ways. jeffrey: let knowledge of the past, that is, continue to inform the present. for "the pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at the penn museum in philadelphia. ♪

geoff: later this evening on pbs, a film by ken burns, "the american buffalo," takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of north american history, tracing the mammal's evolution, its significance to the great plains and, most importantly, its relationship to the indigenous people of north america. airing over two nights, "american buffalo" premieres tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. check your local pbs station listings. that's "the newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life.

life, well-planned. >> 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 broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and 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.]

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