wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the "news hour" tonight, millions are without power in the southeast as residents begin the long, arduous recovery from hurricane helene. ukraine's president meets with donald trump as competing political visions for u.s. aid to ukraine cast doubt on the future of the war effort. and, we go inside a georgia election center to get an up-close look at the voting protections at the center of a critical swing state.

>> fundamentally, it's a problem any time that you're going to put a potentially vulnerable computer between the voter and the only records of their vote. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour, including the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the judy and peter bloom covler foundation. upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. >> it really matters when you have an opportunity to give back. >> being part of something that is bigger than myself, that is what brings me happiness. >> being able to integrate your

professional career with these other things that are important to you. it is critical to be happy at the end of the day. >> people want those opportunities to make an impact and a difference. ♪ >> the john s. and jane l. knight foundation. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. geoff: welcome to the "news hour." the devastating impact of hurricane helene is being felt far and wide across the south tonight. at least 40 people are dead in four states. millions are without power. there have been harrowing air rescues from florida to tennessee. and, although the category four hurricane is now a tropical depression, the threat isn't over yet. christopher booker has the latest. christopher: helene's fury unleashed on the florida gulf coast. coming ashore last night just east of tallahassee as a category four hurricane, the storm brought sheets of blinding rain and whipping winds of 140 miles an hour. storm surge threatened to wash cars off roads. ocean swells grew so high that it carried these boats from the water and smashed them into homes. >> oh, my goodness. oh, my goodness. christopher: flooded streets resembled rivers.

entire neighborhoods looked more like lakes. this man in cedar key tried to check on family. >> i was trying to make it to my mama's house, but it's neck deep here. i'm not able to get any further. oh, man. christopher: it prompted thousands of high-water rescues from florida up through the carolinas. first responders out in boats to rescue people trapped in their homes. in south pasadena, florida, firefighters literally battled fires and floods. and, in one daring rescue, the coast guard air-lifted a man and his dog from their stranded sailboat off the coast of florida's sanibel island with the storm bearing down. still, helene claimed lives in multiple states, from fallen trees, debris, and possible tornadoes. many of them in georgia, where governor brian kemp said the threat was still very real. >> it is still very dangerous out there. even though the winds are starting to die down, there's still trees literally falling. christopher: in the mountains of asheville, north carolina, up to

10 inches of rain sent floodwaters roaring past the biltmore. and in tennessee, dozens of people had to be airlifted from a hospital engulfed by the rising river. for more than four million people across the south tonight, they're left in the dark. and returning power to some customers, officials say, could take days. helene has now weakened to a tropical depression, but it still threatens millions further inland, hovering over the tennessee valley through the weekend. its sheer size can only fully be comprehended from space, spanning from missouri, to virginia, down to georgia, where streets and neighborhoods were submerged today, catching many off-guard. >> i just didn't expect this to happen, like living over here. it wasn't something that came across my mind. this is so crazy. christopher: back in florida's big bend, it's been a devastating trifecta of hurricanes. helene made landfall mere miles from where idalia struck just last year. and, many of the same communities are still reeling from hurricane debby just one month ago.

governor ron desantis today. >> the early reports we've received is the damage in those counties that were really in the eye of the storm has exceeded the damage of idalia and debby combined. christopher: in riverview, just outside of tampa, randy and bonnie hann's home was inundated with water from the nearby alafia river. they stayed with family last night, but came back early this morning. >> we came back and we were able to get down the street and we had all the doors taped and sandbagged, but that water has a way of getting in. christopher: they've been here since 1975. they say this is not the first time, but it was the worst. and despite the damage, randy says they plan on rebuilding and staying put here, however long it takes. geoff:ou are in the tampa area. tell us what you are seeing. christopher: as we drove in from the east, we didn't see a lot of downed trees or that much water

but as we learned through the day, tampa and tallahassee were actually spared the brunt of the storm. here on this street which is right next to the river, nearly every single home is flooded. as you can see behind me, people have been bringing out their damaged furniture, spending the day assessing the damage and trying to figure out what it will take to get their homes back to normal. geoff: what else have you heard from officials about with the last 24 hours have been like for folks? christopher: i had a conversation with a spokesperson from the hillsborough county fire and rescue who said between 11:00 p.m. and 6:45, they rescued 500 people. the sheriff department rescued 400 people. they rescued nearly 1000 people in under eight hours. two month ago, there was a tropical storm and they rescued 11 people. he said the storm surge exceeded what they were expecting and landed -- and rose between four and seven feet and received nearly 1200 calls during that eight hour period. on a normal night, they might

get two calls for fires. last night, they had 47. he said the storm was an eye-opening event. this is an area that is used to storms but last night was different. geoff: that is christopher booker in riverview, florida for us. thank you for being with us. christopher: thank you. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "news hour west." here are the latest headlines. israel's defense forces are conducting fresh air over southern beirut tonight after ordering residents to evacuate. earlier today, the idf struck hezbollah's central headquarters there. sources say the group's leader hassan nasrallah was the target of the strikes. his condition is unknown, but we're told he was on site. ali rogan has more. ali: in southern beirut today, multiple massive explosions.

then, thick plumes of smoke that engulfed parts of the lebanese capital. lebanese media reported that six high-rises were bombed. levelled and reduced to rubble. israel called it a precise strike targeting hezbollah headquarters, which it said was built under residential buildings in the densely-populated dahia suburb of beirut. >> here's the truth -- israel seeks peace. israel yearns for peace. israel has made peace and will make peace again. ali: the strikes coincided with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's address to the united nations general assembly in new york. he justified israel's attacks in lebanon that have reportedly killed over 700 people this week, even as dozens of diplomats staged a walk-out opposing israel's actions in

gaza and lebanon. >> as long as hezbollah chooses the path of war, israel has no choice. they endanger their own people. they put a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage. ali: a source familiar tells the "news hour" the strikes targeted hezbollah general secretary hassan nasrallah, who has been its leader for over three decades. nasrallah joined the ranks of hezbollah in his 20's, working his way up under the mentorship of hezbollah co-founder abbas al-musawi, who was assassinated by israel in 1992. beirut reels under the shock of what was the biggest attack on the city in years. for the "pbs news hour," i am ali rogin. stephanie: in a separate strike, the israeli military said it killed the commander of hezbollah's missile unit in southern lebanon. new york mayor eric adams pleaded not guilty to bribery and other charges in federal court. he's accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and gifts from turkish

nationals in exchange for using his position to help turkey's interests. adams did not speak on his way into the manhattan courthouse, but flashed a thumbs-up to the crowds. his lawyer said he will file a motion next week to request that the charges be dismissed. adams was released after the hearing. he has said he won't resign and will continue to conduct city business as usual. vice president kamala harris is making her first visit to the nation's southern border today since becoming the democratic presidential nominee. she touched down in arizona this afternoon in douglas, arizona, and met with border agents to thank them for the work before speaking at a rally. harris lags behind her rival, donald trump, when it comes to voters' trust on the issue of illegal immigration and is looking to close the gap. for his part, trump was in michigan today to deliver remarks and revealed more than 425,000 convicted criminals have been released from ice

detention. the justice department has charged three members of iran's revolutionary guard for the hacking of donald trump's presidential campaign. according to the 37-page indictment, the wide-ranging operation began targeting u.s. officials, journalists, and campaign staff starting in 2020. the alleged goal was to damage confidence in the u.s. democratic process. the men are charged with 18 counts, including wire fraud and identity theft. speaking to reporters today, attorney general merrck garland said the attacks point to the increased threat posted by iran, as well as russia and china. >> these authoritarian regimes which violate the human rights of their own citizens do not get a say in our country's democratic process. the american people and the american people alone will decide the outcome of our country's elections. stephanie: last month, the trump

campaign said it had been hacked by iranian actors, and that sensitive internal documents had been stolen and distributed. the three men charged today all live in iran, and are unlikely to ever face a trial in america. a venerated star of the stage and screen has died. dame maggie smith, one of the greatest of her generation, won two oscars, four emmys and a tony, and played roles many generations will remember. >> i am so looking forward to seeing your mother again. when i am with her, i am reminded of the virtues of the english. >> is and she american? >> exactly. geoff: for nearly 70 years, dame maggie smith enchanted audiences with her signature mix of quickwitted comedy and english elegance. >> there's never anything personal between us. geoff: prolific and preeminent, she took on the truly impressive range of roles. smith started her career in the

theater, working on broadway and the royal shakespeare company to great acclaim. >> your attention please. geoff: yet, she was not as widely known until she took on two megastar roles in the 2000's. first as professor mcgonagle in the harry potter franchise. and later as the sharp tongued, violet crowley in downton abbey. >> i don't know what that means but it sounds de peculiar. geoff: she won an academy award in 1969's "the prime of miss jean brodie." it was a first in her career with no shortage of accolades, including tonys, emymys, baftas, and a second oscar. she belonged to a generation of british stars like judy dench who later in life called themselves the dames.

>> just try and do it privately. geoff: this dame was knighted by queen elizabeth in 1990. maggie smith was 89 years old. stephanie: still to come on the "news hour," we break down the presidential candidates' competing proposals to counteract crime and gun violence. jonathan capehart and danielle pletka weigh in on the latest headlines from the campaign trail. and author danzy senna's new novel, "colored television," uses fiction and humor to spotlight difficult realities of american life. >> this is the pbs news hour from the david m. rubenstein studio from weta in washington and from the west at walter cronkite school of university at arizona state university. geoff: ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is heading back to his home country after a busy week of meetings with leaders in the u.s.

his final sit-down was with former president donald trump whose current bid for president holds high stakes for u.s. support for ukraine. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: former president trump and ukraine's leader volodymyr zelenskyy met at trump tower in new york. >> we have a common view that the war in ukraine has to be stopped and putin can't win, and ukraine has to prevail, and i want to discuss with you the details of that victory. stephanie: ahead of their closed-door meeting, trump said he had a "great" relationship with zelenskyy, crediting him for helping him during the first of his impeachment trials. that scandal exploded five years ago when zelenskyy, fresh-faced before years of war, sat with then-president trump at the united nations. >> we're with the president of ukraine, and he made me more famous, and i've made him more famous. stephanie: trump was impeached in late 2019 after he demanded

ukraine provide information on then-candidate joe biden in return for releasing military aid to ukraine. the republican-controlled senate acquitted trump. >> the fact that we're even together today is a very good sign. stephanie: but in the same breath today, trump also lauded russia's president, leading zelenskyy to interject. trump's response was telling. >> we have a very good relationship. and i also have a very good relationship, as you know, with president putin, and i think if we win, i think we're gonna get it resolved very quickly, i really think -- >> i think we have more good relations. >> oh, i see. well, you know, it takes two to tango. stephanie: with russian assaults continuing, all week, zelenskyy found himself caught in the crossfire of the battle for the u.s. presidency, with trump refusing to say whether ukraine should win the war. and earlier this week, trump said this about ukraine's

president. >> i think zelenskyy's the greatest salesman in history. every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion. stephanie: trump also suggested this week that ukraine should have made concessions to russia to avert the war. >> ukraine is gone, it's not ukraine anymore. any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now. stephanie: his running mate, ohio senator jd vance, has also focused on the war's price tag. >> i don't appreciate zelenskyy coming to this country and telling the american taxpayers what they ought to do. he ought to say thank you to the american taxpayers. stephanie: vance and other republicans have ramped up their critique of zelenskyy since an interview with "the new yorker" published sunday. in it, zelenskyy called vance's stance on ukraine "too radical" and said trump "doesn't really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how." republicans charge that zelenskyy has waded too far into u.s. politics.

early this week, zelenskyy visited an ammunitions factory in pennsylvania with democrats. now, the gop speaker of the house is calling for ukraine's ambassador to resign and a house committee is investigating whether laws or ethics were breached. >> well, president zelenskyy, it's good to see you again. stephanie: in washington yesterday, zelenskyy stood alongside vice president kamala harris, who lambasted trump's insistence on striking a quick deal. >> these proposals are the same of those of putin. and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. instead, they are proposals for surrender. stephanie: surrender is far from zelenskyy's mind as he tries to sell his plan for victory to the u.s. while walking a tightrope. for the "pbs news hour," i'm stephanie sy.

geoff: georgia is one of the battlegrounds where local and state officials are grappling with some big changes about certifying the vote and a new requirement to hand count the total number of ballots. miles o'brien looks at another concern raised by some experts about a potential vulnerability of the voting machines. state officials say they are more than prepared. here's his report. miles: it's a few weeks before a primary election day in georgia and election workers are conducting a logic and accuracy test of computers that stand between voters and their ballots. they are image cast ballot marking devices or bmd's made by dominion voting systems. everyone who votes in georgia uses one of these computers to

record their choices, which then prints a paper ballot that is scanned and tabulated. are these machines worth the added cost and complexity? >> i advocated for them. miles: joseph kirk is the elections supervisor here. he says the ballot marking devices offer advantages over paper ballots marked by hand. >> it guides the voter through the process. it makes sure that there's no question about their intent. miles: a small percentage of selections on hand-marked ballots are disqualified because voters make ambiguous markings. dominion's ballot marking devices may address that issue, but many election security experts say they inject stubborn uncertainties into the voting process. >> it's a problem any time you are going to put potentially vulnerable computers in between the voter and the only records of their vote.

miles: j. alex halderman is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the university of michigan. he is among those who advocate for hand-marked paper ballots. it seems ironic that the best computer scientists in the world will tell you the best technology for an election is pen and paper. >> that's absolutely right. and the reason for that is we know how paper can be secured and we know how digital systems can be attacked. the risks are not even comparable. miles: halderman has spent a lot of time studying the risks. he's an expert witness for the plaintiffs in a pending federal lawsuit seeking an injunction against using the current voting system. halderman says he and his team found nine vulnerabilities in the dominion system. we met at a law office in atlanta in march. he showed me some of what he demonstrated in open court.

>> we thought like an attacker. what would they want to do? how could an attacker circumvent the layers of protection in this machine and in a polling place. miles: halderman demonstrated a few seemingly easy ways to breach the security of the dominion ballot marking device. he used a pen to recycle the power, which gave him administrative control of the computer, and he used a widely available usb device favored by computer security experts and hackers to rewrite the software of the machine. all of this mischief could occur without an obvious trace. that's because the scanner that tabulates the votes does not look at the human readable text. instead, it derives its data from this qr code. >> we can change just the qr code and leave all the voter visible text identical to what they entered on screen, so as a voter, there's nothing you can see that's going to indicate

there was a problem. miles: halderman and his team worry that the hacks could propagate through an entire county or even statewide. while the ballot marking devices are not directly plugged into the internet, as they are updated and operated, they regularly exchange data with online systems through usb memory sticks and smart cars. >> that potentially provides a route for hackers far away on the internet to get access to the bmd's. the kinds of attackers that worry me in this scenario include some of the most sophisticated adversaries in the world, foreign governments like russia or china or iran. miles: we asked dominion for a response. a spokesperson emailed us this. "the claim that someone could hack an election with the pen is flatly false. a court directive gave mr. halderman unfettered access to system security features, including passwords, security

cards, election files and more. this did not take into account the many layers of physical and operational safeguards." there is no evidence that any of these apparent vulnerabilities have ever been exploited. georgia state election officials say they are hypothetical scenarios. >> almost all of these are mitigated by the processes put in place around the election system itself. miles: gabe sterling is the chief operating and financial officer for the secretary of state. he says the many layers of people and processes surrounding these machines make it impossible for a voter to reboot them with the pen or insert a usb device without being detected. so, what alex halderman demonstrated, you believe, is not a real-world scenario? >> the computer experts focused solely on the computer. they don't focus on human behavior. they don't look at the entirety

of how the system works. the reality is there are many safeguards around it. miles: what if there was an inside job? this is exactly what happened in early 2021 in rural coffee county, georgia. the elections supervisor and local chair of the republican party invited trump campaign allies and a data forensics team into the secure area where the dominion machines and election management server are stored. for several days, they copied proprietary software and confidential data. it is one of the most infamous security breaches in u.s. election history. it was uncovered by the coalition for good governance and other plaintiffs in that federal lawsuit. david cross is one of the lead attorneys. >> it was distributed on the internet to people that have ip addresses that show up around the world, so it's hard to know where all this is going. miles: they give away all the keys essentially? >> those keys have been out in

the ether now for years. the state has done nothing to protect the system against that. miles: in late 2022, dominion voting systems released a new software system which makes the qr code optional. it was approved by the united states election assistance commission in early 2023, but georgia has yet to upgrade its fleet of about 30,000 machines. >> people somehow thought this was like an iphone download you could do overnight. miles: brad raffensperger is georgia's secretary of state. >> this is a full de-installation and reinstallation. boots on the ground in all counties of all 30,000 pieces of equipment. miles: how much time does it take to do that? >> we are looking at four to six months. miles: in early 2023, raffensperger asked the state legislature for $25 million to get the job done in time for the november 5 presidential election, but the request was not approved.

you have such a complex system that it was not able to respond to a security threat quickly. >> we are where we are, and so we are now into an election, so those are issues the general assembly can take up next session. they don't meet until next january. miles: the state did pass a law to eliminate the qr codes by 2026. in the meantime, georgia is relying on additional oversight to save the day in a contested election. in addition to the logic and accuracy testing before the machines are deployed, state election workers will conduct parallel monitoring while the machines are in use, which we saw during the presidential primary in march. >> we have our ballots. miles: they randomly selected bmd's from various counties and tested them for accuracy on election day. >> we know what the county is using matches what we have. miles: after the election, they will conduct risk limiting

audits designed to deliver a statistically-valid confirmation of the results. during those audits, the results are verified with the human legible text, not the qr codes, and if it is as closely contested as in 2020, georgia is prepared to do a 100% hand recount. if one aspect does in fact fail, do you feel confident you will catch it? >> yes. our system and people are battle tested. we have been through 2020 and 2022 and we are ready for 2024. miles: ready or not, georgians who vote in person this year will use dominion ballot marking devices. as voters cast their ballots, political operatives are likely poised to cast out on whether the machines can be trusted. for the "pbs news hour," i am miles o'brien in atlanta. ♪

geoff: gun violence and crime in america are both key issues of the 2024 campaign. as part of our ongoing series about election year issues, our lisa desjardins has looked into where the candidates stand. she joins me now. great to have you here. so, let's start with former president donald trump. he talks often about crime despite his own felony convictions. what's his plan to address crime in america? lisa: trump's approach is blunt, and it focuses on enforcement. here is what he said to the national rifle association in may. >> we have become a drug-infested, crime-ridden nation which is incapable of solving even the simplest of problems. we will institute the powerful death penalty for drug dealers where each dealer is responsible for the death during their lives of at least 500 people or more.

lisa: trump has given a few other details about this, we can look at it little more specifically. first to do this, he would require that police forces, in order to get federal funding, employ stop and frisk. that is that police method which looks at people that police believe are suspicious and they would pat them down to try and find weapons or guns or drugs. it's a controversial program. he would require it in order to get federal funding. he also would have a crackdown on illegal drugs. to do that, as he said, he would invoke a death penalty, he says, on drug dealers -- he hasn't given other specifics -- and human traffickers. we don't know exactly what that means, but that's as severe penalty as you can have. it's in contrast to when he was president. at that time, he signed the first step act. that's something that actually reduced the punishments and sentences for some non-violent drug offenders, including traffickers, and he personally pardoned or commuted the sentences for dozens of drug traffickers. geoff: so, what about vice president harris, former prosecutor, former state attorney general, what's her approach? lisa: let's talk especially about policing and vice president kamala harris.

her opponents accuse harris of wanting to defund the police, but she has never used that phrasing. instead, she's really carefully walked this line sometimes in a vague way. so, let's go back to 2020 after the death of george floyd. harris then said that in fact, she thought there should be a reimagining of public safety, more resources for education, for housing. for community development. she did say at that time in her opinion, it was right to question the size of police budgets. now while in the white house, she has pushed for more community intervention funding at the same time as the issue of crime has risen while she's been in the white house. the biden and harris administration has also pushed for more funding for police. now, that includes things like police detectives, forensics, and also some prosecutors as well, her specialty. one of her key advisers has said that that's not in conflict that both can happen. and you can increase funding for the police, but also push for reform. what reforms does she want exactly? she hasn't specified, but

harris' main focus in terms of solving crime as a candidate is about prevention, especially about gun violence. geoff: well, let's talk more about that. what are the candidates saying about what they would do if elected about this issue of gun violence in particular? lisa: let's start with harris because it really is central to what she is saying as a candidate. here is something she said at an event just yesterday. >> i'm in favor of the second amendment and i believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban, and pass universal background checks, safe storage laws, and red flag laws. when we took office, we promised to take on the crisis of gun violence and we passed under the president's leadership, the first major gun safety law in nearly 30 years. lisa: that bipartisan law actually extended some of the background checks and it closed some loopholes. now in addition to that, as you heard harris say, she would end

ban assault-style weapons. she would also ban high-capacity magazines. those are things we know often are used, especially in mass shootings in this country, but she would also extend more background checks and red flag laws. she wants also more community intervention as i mentioned and talking to experts, geoff, that's something that they say already has had a positive. that gun violence they see is being affected in a positive way downward because of community intervention. as for former president trump, he says repeatedly on the trail, he wants to protect gun rights. he opposes bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, but otherwise, honestly, he hasn't given many details this cycle. so if you go back a little bit and look at him as president, there's a mixed record for him on guns. one is that he asked that bump stocks be declared illegal was later overturned by the supreme court, but that was something in the direction of gun control, otherwise he moved to water down or sometimes completely rewrite federal gun regulations. geoff: and returning to this

issue of crime, it might be a resonant political issue, but do a fact check because crime rates in this country have actually come down. lisa: we hear this again and again, especially from trump and republicans. there were new figures out just today, or just this week rather, from the fbi. today, attorney general merrick garland said that crime rates have gone down to almost the lowest level in 50 years. what does that mean? well, violent crime nudged down from last year to this year and especially murders and manslaughter down 12% just in the last year. now, trump and his allies are saying they don't like those fbi statistics which are based on law enforcement around the country. instead, they like to use a measure that is a survey of people about if they were victims of a crime. it was about 500,000 or 250,000 people. now that measure, however, geoff, i want to point out when trump says there is an increase in crime by that measure, there's some fun with math there. the increase is based on pandemic levels. if you look at that same measure based on pre-pandemic levels, crime is down. if you look on that same measure that trump likes based on last year, same thing, crime is at

about the same level. so, we asked one expert, jeff asher, to break down the bottom line here. >> we know that murder is falling, probably at the fastest rate ever recorded, and that's coming from both government sources, the fbi and the cdc, as well as independent sources, the gun violence archive, our real-time crime index, the council on criminal justice. lisa: trump also talks about migrant crime, but we know all research so far in that area says that undocumented immigrants are either less or just as likely as anyone else to commit crime, not more. geoff: lisa desjardins, thanks so much. i appreciate it. li: you're welcome. ♪ geoff: vice president kamala harris heads to the u.s.-mexico border to present her border security plan. on that and other issues shaping the presidential race, we turn to the analysis of capehart and pletka.

that's jonathan capehart, associate editor for "the washington post," and danielle pletka of the american enterprise institute. david brooks is away. welcome to you both. kamala harris is visiting the border, trying to flip the script on what has been a political vulnerability for her. jonathan, the harris campaign has tried to gain ground on this issue by pointing to the bipartisan border deal that congressional republicans blocked it earlier this year after trump came out against it. she's at the border today. what also she need to do to confront this issue and cut into donald trump's perceived advantage? jonathan: she is doing it. she is going to the border, she is there. she will be speaking about it later this evening. by going to the border and talking about immigration, it does give her yet another chance. she has been talking about this on the campaign trail. it gives her another chance to

talk about the bipartisan comprehensive immigration deal negotiated by democrats and republicans. senator langford of oklahoma, one of the most conservative republicans in the senate, had all the votes and then donald trump called up and said don't vote for it and it died. it did not even come up for a vote. it gives the vice president an opportunity to talk about the bill, the things that are in it, and talk about the fact that it had things in there that had her and the president going against their own party because they were looking for a deal to do the exact thing republicans say they wanted to do and the exact thing the american people were saying they wanted addressed, and that is securing the border, but also going further in reforming the immigration system. donald trump did not want it to happen because he didn't want to give democrats an issue to run on. geoff: part of the strategy to counter trump's approach is to use this new ad they will

release today. it will air in arizona and across a number of bout around states. -- number of battleground states. here it is. >> kamala harris has never backed down from a challenge. she put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars and she will secure our border. here's her plan. hire thousands more border agents, enforce the law and step up technology, and stop fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking. we need a leader with a real plan to fix the border and that's kamala harris. geoff: what do you make of that? the campaign is pointing to her record as attorney general taking on transnational criminal gangs, but they are not defending the biden immigration policy really. danielle: that is not a felicitous term that they put at the ad because she has been that leader. this was part of her responsibilities. she did not go to the border. she did not make it an issue and i understand.

the politics of this are clear. this is an issue where she lags behind donald trump, where she is perceived to be less good, and she cannot just shrug off 3.5 years as vice president and suddenly say we need fresh leadership to deal with that. where were you for the last 3.5 years? jonathan makes an interesting point. and this is -- this is not -- this is a problem for the biden administration. the supreme court has said, and i'm going to read the quote, it says in the decision on immigration, it says that current statute "exudes deference to the president." in other words, the president had and has all the authorities that are needed to do what was necessary to either shut down or regulate the flow at the border into the poor people if necessary. none of that happened for the first three years of the biden administration. now, is it good that congress wanted to address this? yes.

am i ambivalent about how it was handled? i am because i think it needed a solution and sometimes you have to compromise. the argument that many make who opposed it is that the president has these authorities and the legislation actually limited those authorities. in other words, it would have superseded existing legislation and limited the ability of the president to shut down the border unless there was a certain number of people, an average of 4000 to 5000 at the border. that was the complaint. is it fair? i would prefer compromise and bipartisan solutions, but that's what happened. it does not take away from the fact that kamala harris didn't do anything and joe biden didn't do anything. geoff: let's shift our focus to donald trump's meeting with volodymyr zelenskyy. zelenskyy was in washington yesterday making an in person plea for more military aid. you see him with donald trump

today. what were your takeaways based on their interaction? jonathan: look, i give president zelenskyy major kudos and props for meeting with donald trump. he could very well be the next president. meeting with a man who has said on multiple occasions that president zelenskyy should just hand over his country to vladimir putin. the fact that donald trump met with him when he said before he would not, i guess it shows a level of maturity, but i do think when a wartime president comes to the united states for the purpose of addressing the u.n., saying thank you to the people in the factory that are making the weapons that he's been able to use to defend his country, that is a good thing for him to do, and it's good donald trump met with him.

geoff: donald trump sees foreign policy so much through the prism of money. he talks about nato countries needing to pay their fair share. just in terms of the language he used today, he talks about a transaction, doing a deal. what would it take to get the maga wing of the party and donald trump himself to see ukraine's success is in the best interests of this country? danielle: it is a great question. i want to talk a little bit about president zelenskyy for a second. i think he was manipulated cynically by the white house. the trip to pennsylvania that he was going to do, which was one of many trips that he, the ambassador, ukrainian leadership do, to thank the american people. i agree totally with jonathan. this is a really appropriate thing to do. had none of the democratic senators on the trip, on the original manifest, had a short meeting with governor josh

shapiro to sign a sister city agreement, and otherwise was not a political setup. and ended up looking like a campaign visit. that was not organized by the ukrainian embassy. it was organized by the white house. i think zelenskyy fell into that. i think he exacerbated the problem when he went and gave an interview to a house organ of the democratic party, "the new yorker," and made, frankly, let's say unwise comments. i happen to agree with some of them, but unwise comments about jd vance. they created this firestorm. i give a lot of credit not just to him in reaching out to donald trump to try to fix this, but donald trump being gracious and accepting that outreach immediately, so i think that's important to understand, because the one thing i have not seen since this invasion happened is

joe biden and kamala harris stand up and show the necessary bipartisan leadership to sell this to the american people. so, what is it going to take? we come back to your original question. it takes leadership. it takes effort. it takes the bully pulpit. people need to be persuaded. geoff: democrats make the point that joe biden has shown that leadership and the reason there's a western alliance that has been unified in supporting ukraine is because of that leadership. danielle: democrats would make that argument and ukrainians will tell you, as well ill republicans on capitol hill and most democrats, that the biden administration has been a day late and a dollar short in every single weapons transfer to the ukrainians. when they need missiles, it's coming later. when they need aircraft, later. when they need to reach into russia to hit targets where russians are staging against them and the biden administration won't let them do it, they finally grudgingly allow them to in the last month.

you know, helping people when they are losing is not the best plan. helping them when they can win is the right plan. that's what i call leadership, not just going and schmoozing at nato. geoff: what about that, jonathan? and this is really a bipartisan criticism, that the biden administration, when it comes to giving ukraine aid, the missiles they have asked for, the biden administration has been too slow to get to yes. and now the question is will the west, will the u.s., give ukraine the authority to shoot western weapons deeper into russia? the administration might get to yes on that, too, but it's taken them weeks to get. jonathan: i am trying to recover from the hurricane of platitudes there. listen. geoff, we cannot be simplistic about this. the hesitation of president biden here in russia's war on ukraine is thinking that, you know what?

we don't want this to flare up into a situation where the united states and nato countries will have to go to war with russia. i appreciate and applaud the president's reticence. helping the ukrainians and helping president zelenskyy. i am glad you brought up the major point that the president and biden-harris administration have not been doing nothing. they pulled together the coalition that has helped ukraine last in a war that everyone thought would be over in a week and the idea that a wartime president like zelenskyy could be manipulated by anyone is unbelievably insulting. geoff: jonathan capehart and danielle pletka. unfortunately, we are out of time. we will continue this conversation elsewhere. thank you both. danielle: thank you. jonathan: thank you. ♪ geoff: the new novel "colored

television" uses fiction and satire to spotlight sensitive and often difficult realities in american life. senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown talks to author danzy senna for our arts and culture series, "canvas." danzy: i have affection for all the places and people i skewer in the book. jeffrey: in danzy senna's new novel, all manner of contemporary culture is subjected to sometimes brutal skewering -- hollywood, publishing, class and real estate. most of all, attitudes toward race. danzy: people aren't expecting a comedy about racial identity or about someone failing, you know, and financial woes and familial problems, but for me, the comedy in it has a lot of darkness underneath it, and it feels like freedom to me to be able to work in that tone. jeffrey: did you have fun writing this book? danzy: i had a lot of fun. but, i think most of all, i'm making fun of myself or people

like me. i'm often writing about people in my world and people like me who i never see represented. so, you know, so much of my work is about putting those people into the light that i have never actually seen. jeffrey: from her first book, the 1998 novel "caucasia," and on, senna has mined and examined her own world of growing up bi-racial in america. the tensions within her own community and the broader culture. in "colored television," her protagonist is a bi-racial, struggling writer, wife and mother named jane gibson who can't finish her epic novel, which her black husband playfully dubs her "mulatto war and peace," and gets drawn into the epically-nutty world of television executives breathlessly seeking the next big thing, a bi-racial comedy. so, you've written a novel in which a bi-racial writer, you, writing about a bi-racial writer who is writing now a tv series

about a bi-racial writer. danzy: it's a hall of mirrors. jeffrey: was it confusing for you as you were writing it? danzy: it felt completely natural. and they're also living in a house that has no windows on the outside and is all glass on the inside. so, it's like this navel gazing house. and the book itself is doing the same thing, and she's doing the same thing within the book. and because it's a comedy, you know, it sort of feels like a joke within a joke within a joke. jeffrey: senna herself was born in boston in 1970 to a white mother, the poet fanny howe, and a black father, editor and author carl senna, in an atmosphere of black pride and empowerment that shaped her own sense of self. danzy: my siblings and i all look different, and blackness was the only identity that holds all those colors in the world i grew up in. it was the only one that sort of absorbed all of these different complexions into it. whiteness was sort of the

exclusionary category and blackness was the inclusionary category. and my parents also knew that, that was the identity that they needed to sort of uphold and give us pride in, and it wasn't the white side of us. so for me, there was no contradiction between looking the way i do and also having a white mother being black, because of that moment where there was no mixed race category, that's just what you were. jeffrey: what about in the larger culture? danzy: i've faced confusion from people all my life, and i think it's in some ways, it's why i became a writer, or it sort of formed me as a writer, because i was always feeling like an other amongst others. i also found that i felt like a spy oftentimes in america, that i was seeing things that other people didn't see. and so with my work, i'm always

sort of trying to write from the complexity and the nuance of being within that experience because it's really a story that's weirdly undertold. jeffrey: "guess who's coming to dinner," american girl dolls. nice liberal neighborhoods senna dubs "multicultural mayberrys." the kardashians, and a whole lot more, they're all here. in popular culture today, senna sees a kind of glamorization, even what she calls a fetishization of being mixed. some of it referenced with humor in her novel, including the fad for labradoodle dogs. >> is she indian or is she black? jeffrey: but, she also sees something else as when donald trump said this of kamala harris. >> because she was indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she became a black person. danzy: that tone that he spoke about her with was so familiar to me. it was the tone that i've heard my whole life where, you know, you're not really black. you can't be black. you don't look black. you know, let me see your family

picture. let me see. and this idea that you're an imposter of yourself and that your family story is constantly being discounted, these things that you hold inside of you, that feel naturally who you are, you're not half and half, you're a whole person, are constantly being met with suspicion and a kind of hostility or disbelief from the world because you don't fit this kind of cartoonish or kindergarten-ish idea of what the races are. jeffrey: now on a book tour that included the center for fiction in brooklyn, senna continues to play with that never-ending, fraught american story, giving it her own twist, one that mixes some serious issues of our time with some serious laughs at the way we try to negotiate them. danzy: i do think people really want to laugh right now. like there's a feeling about

these subjects, you know, you look at twitter and everybody's on tenderhooks and it's like something, anxiety is released when we laugh, and there's sort of this little change that occurs in us when we find a way to laugh at ourselves. so, for me, this is laughing at ourselves. and, all of the sort of deeper messages are hidden in this laughter and in this comedy. and that, that i feel excited about, that tone and that emotional range that people are getting from this. jeffrey: the novel is "colored television." danzy senna, thank you very much. danzy: thank you. ♪ geoff: there's a lot more online, including "pbs news weekly," our digital show that unpacks an eventful week amid an escalating war in the middle east, while world leaders gathered in new york for the united nations general assembly. you can find that on our youtube page. be sure to tune in tonight to

"washington week with the atlantic." guest moderator laura barron-lopez and her panel will analyze harris and trump's dueling positions on immigration and look ahead to tuesday's vice-presidential debate. on "pbs news weekend," the latest on the aftermath of hurricane helene as the storm pushes north. and that's the "news hour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the pbs "news hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. the william and flora hewitt

foundation. advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour. 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 news hour west from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. >> with less than six weeks to go before election day, kamala harris confronts one of her political vulnerabilities, immigration. foreign policy takes center stage a paris and donald trump meet with ukraine's president. jd vance and his democratic rival tim walz prepared to debate in new york, nex ♪ >> this is washington week with the atlantic. rporate funding provided by -- consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by the