amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "news hour" tonight, president-elect trump begins to shape his administration, naming immigration hardliner stephen miller and others to top posts. amna: as the vote count continues, republicans edge

closer to winning control of both congressional chambers and giving trump broad powers to implement his agenda. geoff: and, the united nations urges immediate action in gaza to avoid famine. we hear from a former u.n. official who just returned from the region. >> this is a catastrophe that has been announced for a very long time, and it will come to haunt israel and its allies. ♪ >> 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 leonard and norma, and the judy and peter bloom kovler foundation.

>> two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race hounds a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor get to know you, your purpose and the way you give back. life well planned. >> as somebody coming out of college, it can be very nerve-racking what to expect. here, i feel like it is so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work. you just feel like you are valued. >> the william and flora hewitt foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the "news hour." president-elect donald trump is quickly picking the people he wants to advise him when he enters the white house again in january. that includes who he has chosen to lead his mass deportati effort, a campaign promise he said he'd begin carrying out on day one. amna: on sunday, mr. trump announced on truth social that tom homan will be his border czar. trump said the former acting ice director would "in charge of our nation's borders and in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin." geoff: and the president-elect is also expected to formally

name stephen miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy in the coming days. vice president-elect jd vance confirmed the selection on the social media site x. miller worked as an adviser during mr. trump's first term and is known as an immigration hardliner. amna: our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has been covering this and joins us now. we know immigration has been a core part of mr. trump's message. what is he pledging to do as he enters the white house? laura: donna tremaine a host of promises during the campaign. -- donald trump made a host of promises during the campaign. from i've heard from the sources and the incoming administration, we excite to prioritize a number of things including mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. restarting border wall construction. invoking the 1798 alien enemies act and invoking more money and agents to the order. a note on the alien enemies act,

it is only been invoked during times of war, notably when the japane americans invoked japanee internment. it will likely be met with immediate lawsuits. another thing i am told donald trump will prioritize is a reconciliation package with congress to allocate more money for this deportation effort and add thousands of agents to the border. amna: who would be carrying out that kind of effort? you talk about mass deportations. laura: tom homan, the former acting ice director, will lead this effort. homan was recently asked what that mass deportation effort would look like by cbs. >> is there a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families? >> of course, there is. families can be deported together. their parent entered the country illegally, had a child knowing he was in the country illegally, so he created that crisis. laura: homan was a supporter of

the first term effort to separate families, the zero-tolerance policy at the border, which ended up separating some 5500 families. he was also a contributor to heritage foundation's project 2025. homan is excited to work alongside stephen miller, who is expected to be named the deputy chief of staff or policy. miller is also going to be overseeing immigration policy. he was known as one of the architects of that family separation agenda during trump's first term. and he is someone who supports very harsh immigration policy, recently saying at the madison square garden rally that america is for america and americans only. sources tell me that homan and stephen miller approach things a little different. homan is seen more as a cop, someone who wantto enforce the law and is less ideological than

stephen miller whose anti-immigrant positions are based on culture and identity. when it comes to who may be the secretary for the homeland security department, sources close to the transition told me that chad wolf is a top contender. he served as acting director of homeland security during the first trump administration. other names in the mix include vivek ramaswamy. amna:amna: when it comes to mass deportations, is that something president elect trump can do on day one? is a mass deportation effort even possible? laura: as one source told me, the planning is starting now so that implementation can happen on day one. now, according to current estimates, there are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. donald trump and jd vance both had previously talked about deporting anywhere from one million to 11 million

undocumented immigrants. most recently, tom homan and other trump allies have said their first priority for those deportations would be those who post public safety threats and national security threats. a former director of ice, acting director of ice, said if trump goes through with those deportations of one million or more immigrants, it will reach far beyond just those who post public safety threats. >> i am grateful that the administration says we want to focus first on public safety cases. but, the bottom line is you can't deport a million people in a year and you can certainly cannot deport 11 million people without getting into these really tough cases. these cases where someone has been here a long time, has never been convicted of any criminal offense, has a u.s. citizen, often times a minor child is a u.s. citizen. and now, you're saying we're going to take you in the crossing to remove you from the country. and putting these families in these incredibly difficult positions. laura: again, the big question is beyond deporting people who

post public safety threats, beyond deporting undocumented migrants with committed violent or property crimes, who exactly is trump going to target? is it going to include people's whose visas expired? a former dhs official told me that trump and tom homan may target employers who have large undocumented migrant workers, so could result in conducting raids. it would require more agents, more transportation, more detention beds and money. amna: have we ever seen anything like this before? laura: nothing at this scale. if donald trump, if the president-elect is able to carry out something that would be deportations of one million or more undocumented migrants. the big picture overall is that people view donald trump's goals as one that would make it harder not just people to migrate here illegally, but also legal migration will be restricted

severely under this administration. and there were a few other areas i want to point out. one is that multiple former dhs officials and sources close to trump world said the administration may target states by blocking fema funding or funding for local law enforcement if those states are ones that provide drivers licenses to undocumented migrants. other things on the table are ending birthrights edition ship. amna: he has named a few more people to serve in his administration. laura: today, the president-elect announced he will be appointing former new york congressman lee zeldin to lead the epa and congresswoman elise stefanik to be the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. amna: we expect more names in the coming days. laura barron-lopez, thank you. geoff: how much congressional support will trump have to implement his agenda? that remains to be seen with more than a dozen congressional

races yet to be called. republicans hoping to maintain their majority in the house of representatives, and if they do, it would lead to republicans holding a political trifecta over washington. our lisa desjardins has been following the latest and joins us now from our pbs news super screen. where do things stand in the race to control the house? lisa: we have had more races called over the weekend. as it stands now, republicans have 214 seats. as many of our viewers know, they need four more in order to clinch control. how many races are left? there are 17 races left to be called around the country. there's a couple that are going into overtime, maine and alaska. those are ranked choice selections where we will go into the next phase of that. a couple will get an official review potential, recounts possible. the largest number, still looking at you, california. 10 races left in the golden state. that will decide who wins and the margin.

here's a republican race, critical for republican-controlled. the incumbent in house district 22 in the center of california. he's out ahead of rudy salas. looking good. not as good news for republicans, better news for democrats in district 27. that is northern los angeles county. george whitesides is now leadin g. he pulled ahead over the weekend. this could go back and forth with democrats think they will not of his lead. geoff: you've been looking at data surrounding the house results. what do you see? lisa: there is something historic that happened in the selection. i looked at all the competitive races that had incumbents, and these are the ones that were called by the associated press. all of these dots representing republican and democrat incumbents. only five of these incumbents lost their races. the rest of them were winning incumbents.

it is a 98.5% win rate for incumbents according to open secrets. that is a ma modern record. republicans essentially are up one, democrats really have a lot of catching up to do if they will get -- they need to swing five more seats in order to feel good. geoff: we know republicans will control the senate. the question now is by how much? lisa: here we are. 53 republican seats right now in their hands. the remaining decision is in arizona. we are waiting to see what happens there. this week, republicans will vote on their majority leader, replacing mitch mcconnell. that happens wednesday. to win that, you need a majority of the sitting republicans in that race. john cornyn of texas, john thune of south dakota have served as

the number two republican in the past. a lot of conversation about rick scott of florida, saying he represents the maga wing of the party. some have been endorsing rick scott the last couple of days. elon musk, tucker carlson, charlie kirk, rfk jr. this is a secret ballot vote. everyone can say what they want about rick scott in public, behind the scenes more senators are inclined not to vote for him but he's making a run of it. geoff: an interesting point because the senate has typically been insulated by outside pressure that has to do with how the founders designed it. does that still hold true? lisa: we have seen donald trump clearly wants to push control of the senate right now. he sent out this post on x over this weekend, saying he's expecting any republican senator who wants to have a leadership position must agree to recess appointments. what does that mean? recess appointments as a way to

get around senate confirmation. you have to have both chambers in order to do it. a reminder, the president appoints more than 1200 total positions. high-level nominees usually face hearings and scrutiny but a recess appointment would get around that. trump wants them to give him carte blanche on his appointments. geoff: thanks as always. we start the day's other headlines with veterans day, and in particular, the first joint appearance by president joe biden and vice president kamala harris since last week's election. they appeared together to honor those who've served the nation in uniform. at arlington national cemetery outside washington this morning, mr. biden laid a wreath at the

tomb of the unknown soldier. and, with vice president harris looking on, mr. biden reflected on the service of our nation's veterans, as his own time in public service comes to an end. >> this is the last time i will stand here at arlington as commander in chief. it's been the greatest honor of my life to lead you, to serve you, to care for you, to defend you, just as you defended us. geoff: meantime, british prime nister keir starmer joined french president emmanuel macron in paris to mark the 106th anniversary of the armistice that ended world war i. it's said to be the first such joint appearance on armistice day since general charles de gaulle hosted winston churchill in 1944. america's top climate envoy told a u.n. conference today that the nation will continue its environmental efforts, despite what he called a bitterly

disappointing election result. john podesta was speaking at the cop29 conference, as it got underway in azerbaijian. he warned that president-elect trump will try to reverse president biden's climate politices, including the inflation reduction act which funnelled $375 billion into climate spending. during the campaign, mr. trump vowed to take the u.s. out of the paris climate agreement and increase oil drilling. podesta said trump should be taken at his word, but that the broader fight for a cleaner environment will continue. >> while the united states federal government under donald trump may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the united states with commitment and passion and belief. geoff: podesta was speaking as world leaders from around 200 nations gather over the next two weeks to discuss climate concerns. but, the leaders of two of the world's biggest polluters, the u.s. and china, are not planning to attend. back here at home, fire crews

are battling blazes on both coasts. in the northeast, an 18-year-old state parks employee died while fighting a large fire that's burned almost eight square miles near the new york-new jersey border. numerous brush fires have broken out around new jersey since last week, fueled by bone-dry conditions. officials say that a quarter-inch of rain fell last night, giving firefighters a bit of a break. but, they say it's not nearly enough. >> so right now, you get a little bit of rain, it puts that surface fire out, but if it's in the duff, it's going to stay there and smolder like a cigar until it gets dry enough and then that fire can pop up again. geoff: and in the west, much larger wildfires rage on in california, though firefighters are making progress, including on the 32-square-mile mountain fire, which has destroyed more than 170 structures, most of them homes. at last checked, it is only about a third contained. a county coroner in alabama has identified the man killed during a shooting at tuskegee

university as an 18-year-old who was not affiliated with the school. yesterday's shooting erupted as the historically black university was wrapping up its 100th homecoming week celebrations. 16 people were injured, many of them students. a 25-year-old has been taken into custody. he was found with a handgun and faces a federal gun possession charge, but has not been accused of the shooting itself. the fbi has joined the investigation and is seeking tips from the public. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said today that his forces are holding back enemy troops in russia's kursk border region. he said that moscow had sent 50,000 fighters to retake areas that ukraine captured in a surprise incursion earlier this year. the ukrainian military released drone footage today that claims to show russian troops under fire in the area. meantime, a barrage of russian missiles, drones and glide bombs pounded several cities in ukraine's south and east earlier today. officials say at least six

people were killed and 30 others injured. the kremlin is denying that russian president vladimir putin and president-elect donald trump spoke on the phone last week. "the washington post" first reported the call yesterday, saying that trump advised putin not to escalate the war in ukraine. but, kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov told journalists today that the report is "completely untrue" and "pure fiction." a spokesperson for trump said, "we do not comment on private calls between president trump and other world leaders." haiti's international airport shut down termporarily today after gangs opened fire at a spirit airlines flight trying to land in port-au-prince. a flight attendant was wounded and the plane was diverted to the dominican republic. meantime on the streets of the capital, firefights broke out today between police and gangs, as civilians fled in terror. some homes were set on fire in upper-class neighborhoods.

this all comes as the country's new prime minister was sworn in, following weeks of political chaos and uncertainty. on wall street today, stocks closed at new milestones to start the week. the dow jones industrial average added more than 300 points to end above 44,000 for the first time ever. the nasdaq inched nearly 12 points higher, so just a small gain there. the s&p 500 managed a small gain for its first-ever close above 6000. still to come on the "news hour," we examine the influence billionaire elon musk could have in the incoming trump administration. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. and idaho's strict abortion law goes to trial with potential implications nationwide. >> this is the "pbs news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today, the de-facto leader

of saudi arabia, crown prince mohammad bin salman, accused israel of committing genocide in gaza and called for israel to respect the sovereignty of "sisterly" iran. it marked the strongest criticism of israel by the man known as mbs since the hamas october 7 attack and signaled a turn away from saudi normalization with jerusalem. all this as a u.n.-affiliated organization is warning of "imminent famine" in gaza. here's nick schifrin. nick: this weekend, an independent famine review committee, affiliated with the united nations, declared that across northern gaza, starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality, are "rapidly increasing" and "famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future." little to no aid has reached northern gaza over the last month since israel launched a new operation and called on all residents to leave, saying hamas had regrouped.

jan egeland, a longtime diplomat and humanitarian who is the secretary general of norwegian refugee council, recently traveled to gaza and joins me now from amman. thank you and welcome back. let me first show you the areas of northern gaza we will be talking about. israeli operation last month was focused to the north. you are only able to travel as far north as gaza city. what did you see? jan: gaza city looks like stalingrad after the second world war. it was much worse than i feared. i'm really shattered by seeing how humanity has been trampled upon through gaza. more than 2 million people are trapped in one of the most confined areas on the planet and they are under the most intense and indiscriminate bombardments by enormous israeli air force. and they are using

indiscriminate bombs provided by the united states. this will come to haunt israel and the united states because this is so much against every principle of civilization and of law. nick: the israeli operation in the far than most part of gaza, the idf says hamas has regrouped through. israel's top general says they killed 1000 hamas over the last month, detained 1000 more. in a visit this weekend, he added this -- >> we are providing the israeli residents near the northern gaza border with greater security and creating conditions for this security to endure, to not be fleeting. we are not stopping or slowing down. this is to bring back the hostages, to ensure security for the surrounding communities. nick: is that what you saw when you were there? jan: i understand israelis want to have safety for their citizens and also to have the long-suffering hostages out, but they cannot stop deliberately

women and children to try to make israel safer at the cost of thousands of innocent palestinian children's lives. it will only smear israel forever and not make the israelis more safe by destroying the neighborhood in gaza and lebanon. it will not make israel more safe. nick: you could not go farther north than gaza city, when you requested to go north, what did they say? what are the conditions as far as you can tell? jan: there is a siege there. it is a little bit like the assad regime in syria did against the besieged areas in syria, which outraged the united states, european union, written, germany -- britain, germany, etc. israel doing exactly the same. starvation tactics. it gains an area which i'm sure have some very bad guys inside but many more babies.

this is not the way to exercise self-defense, nor precise counterterrorism operations like the united states have asked for. nick: israeli officials denied that they are conducting any kind of starvation campaign. on a warning from the famine review committee, israel's coordinator in gaza said "the researchers continue to rely on partial biased data and superficial sources with vested interests." israel points out there is aid from jordan arriving into northern gaza, some 700 trucks over the last month. they have facilitated the movement of the entire population from northern gaza. again, does any of that match what you are seeing? jan: no, not at all. i'm amazed how journalists takes one party in a very dirty war as a good source. don't believe the israeli propaganda.

don't believe hamas propaganda. don't believe hezbollah propaganda. there's a reason israel is denying pbs and all other independent journalists in the world access to gaza. they don't want independent witnesses. we who are there, who are independent, neutral, impartial, all u.n. agencies, red cross agencies, nongovernmental agencies, american, european, etc., we are unanimous in that israel is deliberately starving the population and having an indiscriminate, excessive warfare that are killing thousands of women and children. there is no doubt. this has been documented. israel is not telling the truth. nick: finally, winter is coming to gaza. i wonder how much that will exacerbate all the things we've been talking about. jan: after having seen all of these families, all of these

mothers who were crying to get a tent, a blanket, a mattress after their home has been destroyed by the carpet bombing. many will die this winter. in the area where israel is asking people to go. no water, no sanitation. epidemic disease is spreading. this is a catastrophe that has been announced for a very long time and it will come to haunt israel and its allies. nick: jan egeland, secretary general of the norwegian refugee council, thank you very much. jan: thank you. ♪ amna: among donald trump's most-visible and powerful surrogates on the campaign trail was elon musk, the tech billionaire who owns the platform x, formerly twitter.

now with president-elect trump, musk remains within the inner circle, joining calls with world leaders and weighing in on staffing decisions. for more on the influence musk could exert on the next administration and what he stands to gain, i'm joined by vittoria elliott, a reporter from "wired" who has long covered elon musk. vittoria, welcome. thanks for joining us. vittoria: thanks so much for having me. amna: so, let's just start with the influence musk has already had on getting trump back into the white house. we mentioned he owns and controls the platform x. he dated over $118 million to the re-election bid. how instrumental would you say he was in getting trump reelected? vittoria: you know, obviously, he plowed a lot of money into the campaign, and he really brought the full weight of his own personal celebrity because before musk even owned twitter, he was one of the top 10 most-followed people on the platform. so, just his audience even without the sort of super juicing that now we've seen as he owned it, as he's changed the algorithm would have been incredibly powerful. there was a really great report

from the center for countering digital hate that found that the posts on x from musk alone between july 13, when he endorsed donald trump, and october 25 reached so many people that if a campaign were to like pay for that kind of visibility, it would have been the equivalent of about $24 million in advertisements. so, even the use of his platform alone to boost the trump campaign's talking points, to boost its visibility was incredibly valuable. but then, if you zoom out from that, he also sort of gave permission for a lot of these other more right-leaning people within silicon valley, people like david saxs and sean mcguire at sequoia capital, to be really public about their support for trump and to put their money behind his campaign, too. so, i think he's sort of, you know, really was at the vanguard of being willing to sort of take the public heat and attention for this such that other people in his circle felt comfortable backing trump.

that is also true for bringing the people that have followed him for years, including his fan base. amna: musk is also the richest man in the world. he's the ceo of tesla and spacex. he also relies on the federal government for a big chunk of his wealth, right? he's gotten billions of dollars in federal government contracts over the years. from what we know about how former president trump, president-elect trump plans to govern, how could musk and his businesses benefit from a trump administration? vittoria: well, definitely what we know from how the first trump administration went is that trump values loyalty, and he is more than willing to use his position as president to reward the people who have been very loyal to him. so, i think a really great place that we may see this is in space exploration, you know, spacex competes with other companies like blue origin, which is run by jeff bezos, for contracts. i think we could definitely see him getting more contracts for that. tariffs, which have been a huge talking point, would be incredibly helpful for musk,

particularly tariffs on china electric vehicles because that really helps tesla's market share even though donald trump has sort of taken a more pro-fossil fuel vision for how he envisions his administration and, you know, is not as hot on electric cars as elon musk is. still, some of these policies will be really good for his businesses. so i think, you know, the rollback in regulation regardless of who you are. if you are a billionaire, if you have a big business, it is an ultimate win, and particularly if you read project 2025, the rollback on labor rights and labor protections. musk is part of several labor lawsuits and is trying to currently dismantle the national labor relations board and, you know, that in itself, being free from some of these suits, being free from the ability of his workers to make claims are all boons for him. i think there are many ways in which a trump administration could really benefit him. amna: we've also seen over the years a lot of people who got

very close to mr. trump, who ended up getting burned by him in the long run. you're talking about two very big personalities, two men who are used to being in control and getting their way. what do you think happens in the future? do you see this alliance continuing between these two men? victoria: both of them are very sensitive. we've seen them really value loyalty and be willing to fire or cut ties with people over even disagreements or perceived slights, so i think it could really go either way. though, musk has said he would be in charge of some form of government efficiency commission. i think we may see him much more as a floating advisor to the trump administration rather than someone who's actually installed within it, and i think that's frankly because these are two people who are used to being in charge, who kind of conceive of themselves as alpha men, and i don't see either one of them being comfortable willing to work in a position that feels like it's beneath the other. trump has no problem letting go of people who have previously

supported him if he feels that their loyalty or their support is in question, and i don't think musk would be any different. particularly once trump is in office and has the full power of the regulatory state that he can rely upon. amna: that is vittoria elliott, a reporter from "wired," joining us tonight. thank you so much. good to speak with you. vittoria: thank you. ♪ geoff: for analysis of democrats' losses in last week's election and the new trump team taking shape, i'm joined now by our political stakes duo. that's amy walter from the "cook political report with amy walter" and tamara keith from npr. it is good to see you. democrats are working to regroup and figure out what went wrong in last week's election. here some of what democrats said yesterday on sunday shows. >> bottom line, if you're an

average working person out there, do you really think that the democratic party is going to the mats, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? i think the overwhelming answer is no. >> the reason we didn't win, ultimately, is we didn't listen enough to people on the ground. people like chris deluzio, pat ryan, who were saying talk about the economy, talk about people's economic struggles, convince people you have the better policies and better vision. >> we've used condemnation of donald trump versus invitation to donald trump supporters. i've never known any industry, political or professional, in which a strategy of condemnation works better than invitation. geoff: how are democrats coming to terms with this? there are harris campaign aides that say they outline policy after policy that were targeted to working-class voters and made this outreach to republicans, yet donald trump won all of the battleground states. >> i think what you are seein is there's a lot of democrats pointing at a lot of different things and a lot of the things they are pointing at confirm

their priors. if they are progressive, they believe trying to win over liz cheney voters was a fool's errand and simply the harris campaign was to moderate. if they are moderate, they think they went too far to the left and that wokeness is taking down the democratic party. the reality is this is going to be an argument that will continue to be argued for years. if you remember after 2012 when mitt romney lost and former president obama was reelected, they did that autopsy report. the rnc did. they said that into a better job of winning over latino voters need to be more sensitive on immigration policy. well, then donald trump came down the golden escalator and he begin the party's nominee. he set the party's policy. in essence, the way this will be decided is by the next democratic nominee who democratic voters choose, and if that person wins. if the person loses, there will

be a whole new round of this sort of finger-pointing and reckoning. geoff: when you look at the data, what do you see? amy: you know, the harris campaign and her allies spent a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars with many of those messages that the critics that you played in that clip are accusing her of not doing. and i do think i agree with tam that this idea of she moved too far to the left or she needed to move from the center to talk to working-class voters is going to be a central part of the debate going forward. but, i think at its very core, the thing that was hurting harris, the campaign the most, was the one thing she had absolutely no control over which was inflation itself and the frustration that voters have with the very issue that was impacting them day in and day out. you can put all the plans you want forward.

you can talk about a positive message, but at the end of the day, would voters knew is that she was in the white house when inflation went up and donald trump wasn't. when he was in the white house, lower inflation was the norm. geoff: republicans, donald trump won across the map, improving his margins nearly everywhere. he delivered on his promise to win over more nonwhite voters. how daunting a picture is this for democrats with their national coalition really fractured now? amy: yeah, when i look at where donald trump was most successful, you are right. he basically broke up what was known as, at the time of the obama era, the coalition of the ascendant. voters of color, this growing group of folks in the population. and where trump did best was younger voters and latino voters. but i think what's also

important to appreciate is that in the states where harris struggled the most or trump gained the most, democrats also either held on or picked up some seats. in a state like nevada, arizona, where you had senate candidates, democratic senate candidates who were able to outrun the harris campaign, or in some cases, republicans were unable to match trump numbers. i think we will talk about that for a while. the other piece that really did hurt democrats, especially with latino voters, was being on offense. in a place like california where they were hoping to pick up multiple seats, in districts that are overwhelmingly latino, looks like they will come up short in all but maybe one of them. geoff: meantime, mr. trump and to assemble his team, as reported earlier. for any presidential

administration, personnel is policy, especially true with donald trump. what will you be watching for? tamara: i am certainly watching who those personnel are. the pix we have heard, all of them fall into the same category of people who have been incredibly loyal to donald trump. i think that is a key lesson that he learned from his last transition, when he was wowed by generals, persuaded by people who said you've got to give this guy a try. he ultimately ended up with an administration full of people who did not agree with him on policy. this time, loyalty to trump, agreement with him on policy is going to be the most key qualifier. that is what you are seeing already with the people he has named. the one thing up will note is that, and it is very technical, but there are these memoranda of understanding that an incoming administration is supposed to sign with the current administration, essentially to give them the keys so that they can look under the hood, they

could have landing teams in place at various agencies, so that they can really hit the ground running. so far, trump's team has not signed these. it also governs things like conflict of interest, a lot of different items come with these memoranda. they have not been signed yet. this is a total break from precedent. even as 2016, which was widely seen as a terrible transition because trump's team threw out the plan, back then, they did sign those. it is not clear whether or not they will sign them. trump will be sworn in on january 20 regardless, but people who watch this, who say that the transition is the most perilous time in the u.s. government, they are worried about it and they are raising, sounding the alarm. geoff: help us understand why he's focused on recess appointments, especially given the fact he will have at least a 53-seat majority in the senate.

he should not have too much trouble getting his nominees through. tamara: he could have trouble with some of them depending on how big the majority is in the senate. some of these people that have been extremely loyal to him are also extremely controversial and have a lot of controversial history and statements, all of these things that may make them hard to confirm. this is another one of these tests where trump is trying to assert his power over the congress. he strike to have ultimate power. trying to get the potential leaders of the republicans in the senate to agree to this in advance. so, that is as much as what it's about. it is a power that has not been used in a long time, in part because senators on both sides of the aisle have tried to prevent presidents from using this power. geoff: thanks to you both. ♪

amna: an idaho state court will hear arguments tomorrow in a case brought by four women who allege they were denied emergency care because of the state's abortion laws, which are some of the most restrictive in the nation. the women argue that the medical exceptions in the state's laws are too narrow to protect the health of pregnant patients, including in cases of fatal fetal diagnoses. for more on this case, i'm joined by lead plaintiff jennifer adkins, and marc hearron, senior counsel for the center for reproductive rights, which is representing the women in this lawsuit. welcome to you both. jennifer, i want to start with you and your experience. you were 12 weeks pregnant with your second child when you receive multiple diagnoses for the fetus, including turner's syndrome which ends in miscarriage and the vast majority of cases. i am so sorry for that. can you tell us what it was like to receive that news? jennifer: it was devastating to find out a baby we were really

excited to welcome into our family was not going to survive the pregnancy. and, you know, it was news that no parent wants to get. and knowing that you couldn't get health care in our home state was just added heartbreak to us. amna: the state attorney general here has argued the law says "it allows a doctor to perform an abortion if he or she has a subjective, good faith belief there is a risk of death to the mother if it is not done." you are representing three other women in this case, but you also representing two physicians and a local medical association. what do they tell you about how they are interpreting this exception? marc: actually, let me just say the attorney general's quotation of the law is wrong. it only allows an abortion if it is necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.

and doctors all across idaho or anywhere in the u.s. are not trained to draw the line about what medical care is necessary just to prevent their patient's death. they are trained to provide all necessary treatment options and health care that would prevent their patient's health from deteriorating. these abortion bans are handcuffing doctors, preventing them from providing the full spectrum of care to their patients. and under threat of criminal penalties. doctors do not understand what this law means. they don't understand how to apply it to their practice. what they do know is if they provide care, they are subjecting themselves to the of criminal prosecution, massive civil fines, loss of the medical license. so, it is no wonder you have seen in exodus of obstetricians and gynecologists, medical

specialists from the state of idaho. you have seen closure of labor and delivery wards. there's a health care crisis going on in idaho because of some of the most restrictive abortion bans in the u.s. amna: jennifer, you were forced to leave the state. you traveled to oregon, six hours away, to receive an abortion. help us understand what that process was like, to figure out where to go and to organize it all and pay for it all is well. jennifer: right. i mean, you are forced to in that kind of situation immediately start scrambling and kind of ignore the grief that you are experiencing, knowing that you are not going to take home a baby. instead, juggle logistics, and like you said, coordinate the travel, find the funds to travel and call a bunch of different clinics you've never called

before, that you don't have a relationship with. and, especially when you are not referred by your doctor, they don't know anything about your story. they don't know anything about you as a patient. so, you have to explain yourself over and over again and try to find appointment availability, and those types of logistics. it is the last thing grieving family and a bereaved family wants to do, walk through all of these mechanical logistics. amna: can i ask, at any point in all of this, did you ever consider carrying the pregnancy further? seeing if you could carry to term? jennifer: it was explained to me that even if i attempted to continue the pregnancy, my baby would not survive to term. and that i was likely to miscarry and miscarriage itself has risks of certain things, like hemorrhaging and sepsis and other risks.

i also understood that i could develop something called mears syndrome and develop high blood pressure and edema which is swelling under the skin. so, even if i attempted, it would be a risk to my health. amna: marc, the goal of this lawsuit, what would it change in idaho and what would be the broader impact given this context we have of an incoming administration that signaled there can be further restrictions on abortion access? marc: what we are asking for in this lawsuit is pretty simple. we are asking that doctors be able to practice medicine as they've been trained to. and that includes abortion care where such care is within the standard of care to treat a patient and prevent them, to prevent a serious health risk or a threat to their lives.

and the laws cuently are inadequate for doctors to feel comfortable with providing care like that been trained to do. i do think this case, the center for reproductive rights has filed similar cases in tennessee and texas. this is important that a national level because it highlights what could happen if there is a national abortion ban enacted by the new congress. any gestation. i have heard politicians throw out, well, how about 15 weeks or 16 week abortion ban as a compromise? these medical complications that arise, that opposing serious health risks to patients often are arising at 17, 18, 19 weeks in pregnancy. what you are seeing in idaho will go on tour all across the u.s. and will come to every state, regardless of the abortion laws within that state,

if we have a national abortion ban. amna: that is marc hearron and jennifer adkins. thank you you to you both. really appreciate your time. jennifer: thank you. ♪ amna: on this veterans day, we celebrate the approximately 6% of the population who served in our nation's military, a number that's been declining for the past four decades. in cities and towns across the country, the nation's oldest veterans group, the vfw or veterans of foreign wars, provides spaces known as posts for these remaining war veterans to connect and socialize. but as their numbers dwindle, the vfw seeks to expand its ranks by looking to a new generation. stephanie sy has the story.

stephanie: as the ohio state buckeyes sail to victory over purdue, veterans and their families mingle over a potluck. it's part of the weekly tailgate at the whitehall vfw post just outside of columbus, ohio. it's a little more inclusive than the traditional vfw post, where old veterans trade war stories over a beer, but that's the point. >> we realize that to reach out to that younger generation, they're family oriented, then we need to be family oriented. stephanie: christine curry and her husband richard served in iraq and were the first post-9/11 veterans to lead this vfw location. they've seen their membership rise in the last few years, simply by opening their doors to veterans who didn't feel welcome before. >> we came here and made sure that, you know, we were a welcoming place and not only for families, but obviously for people of all beliefs and all races. and we have a good mix here. ray rodenfelds was a korean war

veteran, recently passed away. he was a good member. stephanie: curry says when he took over the post, there had been a slow decline in membership for decades. since the draft ended, there are simply fewer military servicemembers, and to qualify to join, one has to have served in a conflict. >> we've lost a lot of veterans from world war ii era. we're losing the korean war veterans. so, we've declined over the years because obviously people have died off. stephanie: now in its 125th year, the vfw was founded by veterans from the spanish-american war and philippine insurrection to support and advocate for those who fought for their country. but since its peak in 1992, the vfw has lost almost half its membership nationally, now at nearly 1.5 million. and hundreds of posts across the country have closed. >> veterans are veterans, but just like any other group, their needs change over time.

stephanie: brittany dymond is a navy veteran on the vfw's communications team. >> a lot of posts are getting really, really creative with how they appeal to newer veterans. there's one post that has a community garden. there are other posts that are introducing really amazing programs like yoga and meditation. stephanie: rather than sitting at bars, modern veterans often connect over video games, says dymond, so the vfw started a gaming community for its members. posts have also increased community service opportunities, like providing relief to communities hit by hurricane helene last month in north carolina. >> a big throughline that unites veterans is a core of service as veterans, we can just fall back on essentially, it's kind of muscle memory. stephanie: according to the vfw, these efforts have worked, like the whitehall vfw.

posts nationally have recently seen their membership grow. vietnam veterans still account for the bulk of this membership. 85-year-old sidney logan has frequented the whitehall vfw post since he retired from the air force in the late 1970's. logan spent six years in vietnam, flying equipment and deceased and wounded troops across the pacific. >> you have bad memories, you have good memories. and it's a place to talk to people because some of the nightmares -- you bring 30 or 40 human remains across the pacific. it's a place to vent oftentimes. >> those smoky, beer drinking bar bars, there's times when that's a good thing. stephanie: alfred lipphardt is a vietnam veteran and the national commander of the vfw. he says even with the efforts to reach out to a new generation, the old ways still have their place. >> there are times when a combat veteran needs to talk to another combat veteran.

when one veteran meets another veteran, we pretty much understand. we know each other. stephanie: and so, while families cheer for the buckeyes over home-made chili, there's still a spot at the bar to meet, veteran to veteran, and share a drink and a story. for the "pbs news hour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ amna: and that's the "news hour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here, thank you for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise line's journey, travelers experience the maritime heritage and culture of them maine coast and new england islands. our fleet of small cruise ships

explore american landscapes, seaside villages, and historic harbors, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs news hour. ♪ >> supported by the john d, and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just 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.

♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

wow, you get to watch all yo favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company". here is what is coming up. >> i think that week two as head of state and government of two important countries in the americ, we have to have a very civilized reti