♪ ♪ amna: good evening.

geoff bennett is away. tonight matt gaetz drops his bid to serve as donald trump's attorney general after failing to quell senators' concerns. the an our national criminal court issues arrest warrants for israel's prime minister, its former defense minister and hezbollah's military chief. and sherrod brown of ohio discusses his party's defeat in this year's election and the future of the democratic party . >> people move away. announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ ♪

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♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the news hour. former florida congressman matt gaetz has withdrawn from the running as donald trump's picked for attorney general. sexual misconduct allegations fueled scrutiny threatening his chances to be confirmed. today he wrote on social media that while the momentum was strong it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction the work of the transition. the house ethics committee deadlocked on a decision to release a report of a lengthy investigation into the allegations against him.

he abruptly resigned last week following donald trump's nomination. we have more. why -- what do we know about why he stepped aside? reporter: sources tell me that he did not have the votes and the more that came out about the sexual assault allegations and abuse allegations, they made his pathway harder. the timing of the announcement is notable. matt gaetz announced this a day after meeting with senators on the hill. he was joined by jd vance. he could only have lost three boats in the senate. he never requested a meeting with some of the senators most likely to oppose him like senator susan collins of maine. it appeared he did not have the support. and in a post on truth social donald trump thanked him for trying to get the senate

approval fang that he was doing well but at the same time did not want to be a distraction for the administration for which he has much respect. that distraction that the president-elect and matt gates have talked about our -- is sexual misconduct allegations. and a reminder, two women testified to the investigators that he paid them for sex on multiple occasions including beginning in 2017. one testified that she saw him having sex with a 17-year-old at a party. senator josh hawley said that ultimately donald trump needed someone better suited to the role and democrats like senator chris coons said the nomination all around was very troubling. >> lesson, i go back to the fact that -- listen, i go back to the

fact that this is the president's cabinet. he has to pick people he can have trust in. >> for someone to be nominated to the chief officer of this date and then to be involved in allegations because real challenges for him. reporter: a number of senate republican said there was a sense of relief that he withdrew and one gop lawmaker texted me saying "problem solved." leaders on the house ethics committee were quiet today about the future of the report. they were going to meet on december 5 to decide whether to release it. we don't know if they will still hold that meeting. amna: and what about the future of matt gaetz? >> lawmakers i spoke with say they believe there is nothing barring from him from coming

back in january and taking the oath of. technically he resigned for the current congress and many lawmakers are pointing to his carefully worded resignation letter saying he doesn't intend to take the oath. amna: matt gaetz is out of the running so who else could donald trump nominate? reporter: the transition team did not comment on who he is considering but sources close to the team say he is back to the drawing board. before nominating matt gaetz a number of republican sources told me that names being considered include it matt whitaker who served as acting attorney general in donald trump's first administration. mike davis, republican lawyer and former senate aide and andrew bailey. amna: i know you are tracking some of the other nominations. reporter: donald trump's nominee

to lead the department of defense was on capitol hill today with jd vance trying to gain support coming right after last night a 22 page report was released detailing a woman saying she was sexually assaulted by him in 2017. and he was asked about the allegations today. >> did you sexually assault a woman in monterey, california? >> the matter was fully investigated and i was completely cleared. reporter: he's said that the matter was investigated and that he was cleared. but he paid that woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement. amna: thank you.

amna: today the world's top were crimes court issued arrest warrants for israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for what the court called client -- crimes against humanity for depriving ga zans of food. israel called it an anti-semitic attack on democracies trying to protect themselves from terrorism. in the moonscape that is now northern gaz in the desperation of gazan civilians, lacking the basic necessities of life for what the international criminal court called crimes tentionally and knowinglyng deprived the civilian population in gaza of objects indispensable to their survival including food, water and medicine. and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population of gaza.

as the icc prosecutor argued on the news hour in september. >> even more has rules and yet we are seeing baby after baby destroyed. people in gaza who want to have food and water and want to stop waking up in terror as bombs land and the earth shakes and no place is safe it seems including schools. reporter: benjamin not in yahoo! called him a -- benjamin not -- netanyahu -- this is an anti-semitic effort that has one goal to deter us from exercising our natural right to defend ourselves against our enemies. accusing the state of israel of genocide while we are working to defend ourselves from an enemy trying to commit genocide against us. reporter: the icc accuses him of a strategy that impedes

humanitarian aid without justification. >> it is clear that israel has chosen to fight hamas, not just directly but by squeezing palestinian civilians. reporter: ken roth is a princeton professor. >> the court today in affirming the arrest warrants highlight the starvation and the fact that children have died of malnutrition. the fact that people are having to have operations without anesthesia. this is because israel has imposed one obstacle after another to the delivery of humanitarian aid. reporter: israel argues it doesn't restrict aid and hasn't in the last year. it has facilitated 39 trucks to enter gaza. it also accuses the u.n. of failing to distribute enough aid and of hamas of stealing aid. >> he accuses us of starving

them. it is unbelievable. reporter: a lieutenant colonel in the is really reserves and a former lawyer and judge. -- israeli reserves and a former lawyer and judge. >> it is quite an absurd to hear it from our point of view. reporter: today's arrest warrants also accuse them of failing to prevent or investigate intentional attacks on civilians. >> the affirmation of the arrest warrants is appropriate recognition that the israeli government has been fighting a war and gaza. >> they are doing the best they can not to harm civilians. but again, this is war. to think in a war that you won't harm civilians, it is impossible. hamas is using intentionally

human shields and putting gazans inside schools. reporter: the icc also issued an arrest warrant for the man that does i'd that strategy. even though israel said they killed him months ago. the iccs member states are now obligated to arrest them which means they hold the same international status as russian president vladimir putin. today's announcement could lead european countries to further slow weapon deliveries to israel. but michael waltz said there would be a strong response suggesting the next donald trump administration could re-impose sanctions on them. and the white house today accused him of failing to engage with israel structurally. as f israel, val the arrest warrants would not stop the war in gaza until israel achieves

all of its goals. for the pbs news hour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ amna: we start with the war in ukraine. the russian president says his country has tested a new intermediate range missile to strike ukraine. officials in kyiv initially claimed it was an intercontinental ballistic missile which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. american officials clarified that it was like the a closer range missile. vladimir putin said the use of the missile was direct response to western policy changes towards ukraine's use of long-range weapons to strike inside russia. >> we consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allowed their weapons to be used against our facility. and in the event of an

escalation, we will respond decisively. amna: ukrainian officials say the missile was one of nine fired at the center -- add a central city. a number of businesses and residential buildings were damaged and two people were injured. in brazil police have indicted the former president on charges of orchestrating a failed coup following his 2022 election defeat. the accusation against the former right wing leader and 36 others is just the latest legal challenge for him. brazil's supreme court will review the document and decide whether to recommend the findings be sent to the prosecutor general of the country who will then either formally charge him or drop the investigation. he has denied any wrongdoing. the danish military is closely watching a chinese ship in the baltic sea after team that we will major underwater fiber-optic data cables were ruptured in recent days.

the vessel known as the -- was in the area at the time of the ruptures. finland, sweden and germany have launched investigations into the damaged cables. denmark's defense minister said no conclusions can be drawn yet. >> i look at it very seriously. i will also start by saying we did not know the extent of the incident whether it is sabotage or something else. but it is a situation that requires a lot of investigation. amna: in beijing a foreign ministry spokesperson said he had no information about the chinese ship specifically but he says the rights to normal navigation would be protected. in southwestern iceland a volcano has erupted for the seventh time in less than a year. the flow of lava started with little warning about 30 miles

southwest of the capital. dozens of nearby houses were evacuated. the fissure is nearly two miles long. the volcanic area had previously been silent for 800 years before coming back to life in 2021. the highest court in illinois has overturned jussie smollett's conviction. the actor had been charged with staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself. two years later a jury found him lt of disorderly conduct for filing a false hate crime reports. today the state supreme court ruled he was unjustly prosecuted since the initial charges were already dropped as part of a negotiated deal. a special prosecutor in that trial road of today's decision -- today's ruling has nothing to do with his innocence. cryptocurrency markets took note of the announcement today that

sec chairman gary gensler plans to resign effective january 20. under his leadership they as these he been aggressive in its oversight of the crypto industry. bitcoin hit a new record after the news. on wall street investors turned away from tech and towards a more broad-based stocks. that helped the dow jumped more than 460 points or about 1%. the nasdaq added six points. and the s&p 500 ended in positive territory. the 2024 national book award for fiction went to a brand-new take on an american classic. james i percival everett reimagines the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain this time from the perspective of huck's companion, and enslaved man named jim. everett told the news hour in april that writing the book felt like it was having a conversation with mark twain. >> i am perhaps writing the

novel that he was not equipped to write nor would he imagine it because his character is huck finn. it is his novel. he could not occupy the psychic and cultural space that was occupied by jim p.r. amna: the nonfiction prize went to a book soldiers and kings, survival and hope in the world of human smuggling. something about living by a palestinian-american author won the poetry prize. young people's literature honors went to a book called karine between. and taiwan travelogue won for translated literature. the country music industry has been honoring its own some star performances and a few surprises at country music awards. ♪ rising superstar was left out of

the winners circle even though his head "tipsy" has topped the list for 18 straight weeks. chris stapleton won the most awards with three including male vocalist of the year and morgan wallin was a no-show at the event though he topped the nominations list with seven. he only won a single award but he made a count by grabbing the nights top honor as entertainer of the year. still to come, how donald trump's transition team is ignoring and defying the norms of presidential transfers of power. the department of justice tries to sell its chrome web browser and a look at the precarious safety record of the military's osprey aircraft. ♪ announcer: this is the pbs news hour from the rubinstein studio in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state

university. amna: the senate map heavily favored republicans this election cycle so it came as little surprise when democrats lost the majority in the upper chamber. tonight democratic senator bob casey of pennsylvania officially conceded his race. with republicans also winning the white house and retaining control of the house, there has been a lot of talk within the democratic party about what went wrong and what it should do to win back voters. sherrod brown of ohio is one of the incumbents who came up short this year and has argued the party needs to do more to champion the issues of the working class. i spoke with him earlier today. welcome to the news hour. i have to ask you about your election loss because it really calcified for a lot of people that the democratic party had lost working americans. as a core part of the base.

you have spent your entire career talking about working families and serving working americans -- it has been a central theme for you even though your estate drifted red. why did your message failed to resonate with voters? >> it did resonate. i ran way ahead of the national ticket. it has been a slow migration away from the democratic party of american workers starting with nafta. since then democrats don't talk enough about workers or put workers at the center of what we should be doing. my career has been working to do that. and my post senate career will continue with that. how do we make the democratic party the party of workers again? amna: in your estate, people know you and it is a central theme for you but it was still not a winning message. did you lose because of your opponent or because you are a democrat? >> i lost mostly because i am a

democrat. i'm not judging him. he spent 220 million dollars against me. 20 times what mike dewine spent as a senator in 2006 when i beat him. the ads they ran about transgender and immigration were proven to be lies. the last two weeks donald trump was on tv and their ads was saying -- were saying that a vote for sherrod brown was a vote against donald trump. hi it tells me that the democratic -- it tells me that the democratic party over the last 30 years and the reputation of the party as a whole is -- betray is too strong a word -- but i still hear people in the miami valley still talking about nafta. i grew up in mansfield, ohio and

went to school with the sons and daughters of machinists and electricians and steelworkers and autoworkers and rubber workers. those jobs first went south because corporate leaders are always eager to seek cheaper wages and then politicians of both parties sold out those workers bypassing the trade agreements that caused a huge cascading of jobs overseas. these workers did nothing wrong. they were productive and they carried union job -- union cards. we have seen in the last 30 years profits go up and executive compensation skyrocket. thus -- the stock market has gone up and wages are flat. and frankly, though voters expect republicans to be corporate, to look out for their friends but democrats -- voters

expect democrats to stand with workers and when you don't, the disappointment is such that people move away. amna: i know you another senate democrats met with harris campaign officials today on capitol hill. that meeting included the campaign chair. what can you tell us about those conversations? >> i don't talk about private meetings like that. amna: was that meeting required -- requested? >> i think the leader announced it. i never ever talk about meetings. i know you as media people often find out because i have colleagues that talk too much but i'm not one of them. amna: you give us a sense of this was more of a listening session or a venting session? >> let's try another one. you are a good reporter but i'm sorry. amna: not that good, apparently. [laughter]

people say the conversations about what happened need to unfold and people need to figure this out. on the timeline, how do you look at that? house democrats need to figure out there stands with the incoming majority. the midterms are not that far off. how do you look at this period of autopsy? >> the mistake that perhaps journalists, certainly politicians, make is that politician -- is that politics are left and right. to me it is on whose side are you on? pensions. we have capped the price of insulin at $35. we passed a major bill that a million veterans have benefited from. look at inflation. connie and i go to the grocery store after church.

and when we are walking down the aisles, or at the meat counter or the checkout line, people talk to me about inflation. they talk about inflation as they know who i am in the answer most of the time is that you are paying the higher prices because of stock buybacks and executive compensation. we have to make that clear. i've built my whole career taking on interest groups and drug companies and holding wall street accountable. that is what the voters respond to and it is also the right position in government. look at stock prices being way up in the last 30 years. profits are up and executive compensation is way up and wages are flat. too many politicians, almost all republicans have played too cozy with special interests. and we made the decision to run for reelection i knew they would

spend a lot of money because they want to beat people like me who stand up to the drug companies, tobacco companies, the companies that outsource jobs. they don't like people like me and that is why they spend the money. amna: we know in this election that the economy mattered. we know the income bit played a role -- we know the incumbent played a role. do you think president biden should have run? >> i'm not going to talk about that. i don't want to look back and do that critique. amna: this is clearly a conversation they are having. >> i was one of four senators that called for him to step aside. i wish he had done it earlier but i'm not going to do that kind of autopsy. i don't think that serves a

purpose. what does serve is democrats have to sharpen our message, whose side are you on -- not left or right -- whose side are you on when you take on the drug companies or wall street or the companies that outsource jobs. amna: looking forward for the future of the democratic party, there is a sense of frustration i've heard from the younger members of the caucus saying maybe there is time for a generation change. they speak to the leadership in the house with leader jeffries. and they point out that nancy pelosi still exerts a lot of power. they say this in change has not happened in the senate. do you think it should? >> nancy has power because she is a great intellect and has an incredible record of public service. she is not the democratic leader. there are the three top leaders -- i like all three of them. the problem in part is we are

seeing in places like ohio, western pa, michigan and wisconsin is probably too much of a bicoastal party. every generation i'm not critical of any one of them but in every generation when you lose an election people say you need new leadership. but it is not just new leadership. it is who is on your side. amna: as we sit here today, matt gaetz has withdrawn his nomination. >> i'm not there anymore so i don't have to think about what is going to happen or predict. i would assume probably one more will go down or tea of you well because they are pretty extreme. amna: there will be a special election for jd vance's seat. will you run? >> i will stay in the arena one way or the other.

it might be elected office or shows like this. i'm going to continue to speak out. amna: we always love to have you on and we hope you will come back on. thank you, sherrod brown, democratic senator from ohio. ♪ amna: as former president donald trump prepares for a return to the white house, the aides and allies running his transition team have avoided many of the rules guiding the process choosing to cut out the government's administration will take over in january. we look back at the delays in the transition process. reporter: the transition team has not collaborated with the general services administration. that is a government agency tasked with handing power from one administration to the next. they have also cut out other

government agencies and declined to have the fbi run background checks on appointees instead relying on private services. the choices are a warning sign for many federal workers. joining me as max stier, president and ceo of the partnership for public service ended for on presidential transitions. thank you for joining me. some may think that donald trump has been president before, he knows what he is doing and can do it again. why is the lack of communication and coordination with existing agencies a big deal? >> there are two enhancers. there are two answers. the failure to engage with the government agencies you mentioned including the white house will mean that the donald trump team will not be ready on day one when they are responsible for running our government. they will not be ready to govern in a way that can keep us safe and can achieve the promises they made on the campaign trail. to run our government is a huge

endeavor. you have to do a lot of preparation. donald trump was president previously. it is a team sport. the rest of his leadership team was not a part of that administration. they need to do a lot of prep work and they need to engage with the agencies to be ready on day one. reporter: the president-elect has named 15 of the 25 cabinet level positions. it doesn't seem he is being slowed down by the fact that they are not signing the ethics pledges. what is the public missing? how could this delay the way government functions? >> announcing who president-elect trump would like to have lead at the agencies is not something that rick ira's engagement with fed -- something that requires engagement with federal agencies other than to make sure they have the background checks you mentioned from the fbi. they will need to go through the office of government ethics to

make sure there financial conflicts are cleared. the senate has a responsibility to check. all of the appointments that require their review. the fact that he is moving quickly naming people he would like to have served in leadership positions doesn't mean he is working effectively. we have already had one proposed nominee drop out. we have questions about the vetting that might have been done or not been done for others. going fast and not doing it well does not move you forward in a smart way. understanding the situation within each agency, that is fundamental work that is part of the preparation. you need to get access to the agencies to be able to do that. reporter: people that will be entering the trump administration have said that agencies need to be deleted

outright while other trump allies have described the incoming administration as a hostile takeover. does this have any impact on the transition itself? what do you see is the larger impact of this kind of hostile takeover as they describe it? >> i think there should be no hostility. the federal government is there in order to serve the duly elected new leaders. we have a democracy. the civil servants there who are apolitical are used to new political teams coming in and changing the directions they want to go. if you win the election you have that right you don't have the right to break the law or the constitution. the concept of a hostile takeover will lead to less effective government and get in the way of their ability to achieve the agenda they have sat out. reporter: you said on day one that the transition team may not be ready to take over government. does not have an impact on people's everyday lives? >> it will have an impact on

people's everyday life. more importantly it will have an impact on the threat that we all may face from a national security problem. the handoff of power is the point of maximum vulnerability for us as a nation. whether it was 911 or into thousand eight, the threat during the inauguration, there are real issues that, during the transition that involve our actual safety. you want to make sure the new team coming in is ready to take the hand up and has all of the information they need, the time to prepare to be ready. on the day-to-day life, that scuffle show up later on down the road. it may not be obvious but there will be impacts on everything from food safety to air traffic safety, the list is long of things we rely on for our federal government. if you don't have a team that knows how to run the government effectively, you will see a degradation of service over time and you might see big risks of

things not going -- not working at all. reporter: max dyer, thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. amna: the department of justice has asked a federal judge to force google to selloff chrome. it comes after an antitrust case found google had illegally maintained a monopoly on search. the outcome could have a major impact on the company and the way that so many of us interact with the internet. reporter: chrome is worth an estimated $20 billion. it is a central part of google's business model. the implications could be enormous. the government asked a judge to force google to do vest from its android mobile operation -- operating service and it once a company to stop paying phone companies like apple to keep google search the default on

their devices. google called this doj approach unprecedented government overreach and that it would break a range of google products that people love and find helpful. to help us understand this move, we are joined again by npr technology correspondent bobby allen. good to have you back on the program. what does -- what is the department of justice's argument? why are they saying, google, you have to carve chrome away from your company? >> the department says google has too much power. justice lawyers say a way to push back on the power is to have another company come in and buy chrome which is a web browser that has two thirds of the market globally for browsing the internet. and for too long the department of justice says, google has self preference to all of its products to give itself an unfair advantage.

if you open a new tab on chrome and type something incoming you get google search results. if you pull out your iphone and type something into safari, you get google results. it has created a situation in which other competitors cannot rival this company because they just have it too locked down. the justice department is trying to push back against that. reporter: let's say specifically on this issue of chrome that google was forced to separate itself from that search engine. wouldn't everyone just still go to google, via every other browser out there because it is so popular? >> that is google's argument. they say the reason they have surge dominance, and they do having two thirds of the global browser market, it is dominated by google's chrome but the company says it is because they have a superior product. we have seen in europe which has done quite a bit to rein in big

tech companies like google, when consumers are given a choice and when they are asked what they would like to be as their default, overwhelmingly consumers pick google and the company says it is because their product is better than the rivals but the doj says no, that is because they have been able to maintain those iron grip on google search by operating like an illegal monopoly and by throwing its weight around whenever it can to box out rivals. now the question becomes will google actually have to sell chrome? and if it does sell chrome, who will buy it and what will that mean for consumers? these are questions we don't have answers for but the process will upend cilic and dolly in a meaningful way. reporter: and what about the issue that i mentioned about google's relationship with android and what does a government want to do with that relationship? >> the doj gave google an

ultimatum when it comes to android which is the most popular operating system in the world. the doj has said either you stop self preference in your own products like google search or we the doj may come back to this and order you spin off the android division completely from google and that would be a really dramatic and severe punishment for google. the doj is not yet asking for that. they are saying, look, google, we want to give you the opportunity to let more competitors into the android system so people have more options beyond chrome and google search. if they failed to do that the justice lawyers are saying they might just one day ask the android to be sold off just as they are pushing for chrome to be sold off. reporter: i know at this point it is hard to know because we

don't know how this will shake out but for the average internet user who simply wants their phone in their computer to work in a smooth and seamless way to get the results that are legitimate and accurate, it does this potentially upend those things where will this not affect consumers? >> when it comes to consumers most experts i talk to say that if chrome is sold off, it is going to be a bit of a pain. we all use google and turn to google one because it is kind of our habit and number two because for the most part it has been a pretty consistently good product over the years. now more than ever, especially since ai search engines have really become increasingly popular, you still notice that google search has not been as strong as it has been in the past. in the short run if chrome is sold off to another company, it will become a bit of a pain in terms of as you are saying navigating the internet.

you will see your research results displayed differently. the interface might seem a little different or funky because it isn't the google search you are used to. the department of justice says this -- we need more competition into the online search market because google for decades has dominated and a way that has been unfair. reporter: a political question. the department of justice is not supposed to swing with the political winds but attorneys general can say focus on this and less on that. do you have any sense as to whether the donald trump department of justice, we don't know who will run that, would pursue these cases similarly to the way the biden department of justice does? >> it is worth noting that the lawsuit started in the trump administration and the biden administration carried it to trial and won in court. when trump gets into office and

whether his department of justice will pursue similar remedies or reach a sudden month that has some other details, we just don't know. one thing is for sure and that is the biden administration has, as part of its legacy, a push to reign in big tech and to come down really hard on companies i google. reporter: bobby allen, technology correspondent for npr, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. ♪ amna: for months the u.s. military has been flying the osprey despite questions about whether it should be the tilt rotor aircraft was grounded after a crash in japan last november that killed all eight airmen on board. the crash was the fourth by an osprey in the last two years. the military allowed the fleet to fly and said it mitigated the

problem that caused that the accidents but the families of those killed are not convinced the osprey is even want it grounded again. nick schifrin reports from north carolina. reporter: at marine corps air station new river, the marines in the fighting griffins approached the aircraft they call their workforce. the osprey had been grounded for three months before we visited this summer. the captain, dave schroeder, is eager to fly and make sure it is flight ready. he is an instructor that trains junior pilots. do you get rusty? he has been flying military aircraft are more than a decade and calls the osprey one-of-a-kind and gives it his full faith. >> i'm fully confident in the way the aircraft performs. i trust my life in it. the flexibility it provides and the speed at which we can operate is unmatched. reporter: the osprey takes off like a helicopter and flies like

a plane and at twice the speed of other helicopters. the marines call it essential to their mission and on average deploy 20 every day last year but it also has a history of high-profile crashes. an experimental ring core aircraft crashed today. >> in afghanistan and osprey went down. >> and osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off japan today. reporter: since 199211 fatal osprey crashes have occurred. oh >> it was such a heartbreaking experience for all of us. initially we were dealing with the loss. reporter: did you know some of the guys in japan or california? >> yes.

one of my initial thoughts was that it could have been any of us. i have three young children at home and hope to have another one and a gorgeous wife. they are my top priorities. considering it could have been me, it was very emotional. reporter: the california crash killed five people including a 19-year-old, lance corporal strickland. >> i don't thk many people get to see the serious side or the caring side -- he was an animal lover, a musician that loved jazz. >> we found out after his passing that he was going to elope. crazy kid. look at that sweet little face. >> one thing that head's me is when i look at pictures because there are known more new ones -- there are no more new ones. reporter: he was the crew chief

his first day on the job when his osprey crashed during a training mission. a military investigation found that the crash was unpreventable caused by mechanical failure. the osprey is one of the world's most complex aircraft that has two engines mounted at the end of each wing. each engine is attached to a gearbox and a clutch that power the rotors. if one engine fails, the other engine can provide power to the other rotor through a driveshaft. and in california the osprey crashed because of what the military calls hard clutch engagements. the clutch slipped on both sides and then reengaged causing a power surge damaging the driveshaft and creating a catastrophic loss of thrust. the military acknowledges that ospreys have suffered this 19 times but they don't know the

root cause. the strickland's and other families sued the manufacturers of the osprey for failing to address what they say are previously known mechanical failures. >> my job going forward for my son and those that have fallen with him is to seek accountability for something that should have been taken care of over a decade ago. >> this repeated drumbeat of fatalities is unacceptable. reporter: in june the house oversight committee questioned the osprey safety. he blamed hard clutch engagement on aging aircraft. >> over time the clutch wears out. it is susceptible to slipping. i grounded the fleet. that has been completed and we have flown numerous hours without an event. that has not eliminated the risk. we won't until we have a redesigned clutch that is in testing right now. reporter: it will be ready until

mid 2025. not fast enough for stephen lynch. >> if another osprey goes down, this program is done we will bite the bullet for the next year or so into we got the clutch figured out what we have already had too much carnage and lost too many good men and women. >> you are almost asking those that are still flying to roll the dice. >> are they doing what is necessary to fix the problem and find the cause? not just -- >> a patch. reporter: the marines told news hour the osprey has flown or than 600,000 light hours and its mishap rate is lower than some of the other aircraft they fly such as they hearing and super stallion. do you believe it is safe? >> i do.

i don't have a single doubt. reporter: in new river the lt. col.. >> since we filmed this he left the military. a half if you don't know the root cause then how do you know it is safe? when i look at the numbers that were provided to us i feel very confident that there is such a low chance of it happening again that i wanted to get back into the aircraft. >> they keep discussing that the root cause is not known. to me logically the root cause is that the clutch is too small. reporter: he is a retired air force pilot that flew over vietnam. he says the military's mitigation does not address the fundamental flaws. >> the drive train is inadequate

to handle the loads. the history of the clutch engagements and now this complete failure of the gearbox clearly indicates that there is a design problem. >> failure inside the gearbox behind the rotors and part caused last year's crash in japan. the military investigation found that the left-hand gearbox started chipping causing the teeth to grind down leading to rapid cascading failures of the drive system. the report also said the crew could've landed earlier when the chips were initially detected. here >> failures and other risks that the military has known about for years, found a gearbox failed in 2019 due to a manufacturing defect in the way the gears were made. documents obtained by the associated press showed seven

previous cases of cracking. the japan crash report unusually blames senior pentagon leadership. safety assessments and their findings were given insufficient treatment at the ground level and were in adequately communicated to the services. >> there is a strong desire to keep these aircraft flying. and basically you compromise good judgment in order to do that. and that is a leadership problem. reporter: he urges the military to install an additional warning system similar to what exists on this type of british military helicopter that would alert the pilot to unusual vibrations. >> the v 22 does not do it though they have the onboard systems to make the detections. in today's environment, that is unconscionable. reporter: and until the changes to design can be made where there can be a better warning system, should the aircraft be grounded? >> yes, it should be grounded.

>> we all think they should be grounded. reporter: the mother of technical sergeant zachary lavoie. he planned to get out of the military, get married and start a family. >> it has been hard. really hard. you don't expect to outlive your children especially someone -- we are not in times of war and it was a chain -- it was a training mission. reporter: i talked to him two days before and we were making plans for him to visit for christmas. it was a very happy time. we had a good talk. and then suddenly he is gone. reporter: it is a plane that airmen and the marines love and the military calls vital. but all these families want is to make sure that it is safe.

for the pbs news hour, i am nick schifrin in jacksonville, north carolina. amna: an update to our lead story about former congressman matt gaetz withdrawing from consideration for u.s. attorney general. president-elect donald trump nominated pam bondi to the role. she is a former attorney general of florida and was one of his lawyers during his impeachment trials. and that is the news hour for tonight. i'm on none of oz and on behalf of the entire team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise line's journey, along the legendary mississippi river, travelers explore civil war battlefields and historic riverside towns. aboard our fleet of american riverboats, you can experience local culture and cuisine and

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