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geoff: good evening. amna: trump's pick for defense secretary is under the spotlight tonight. geoff: president biden pardons his son despite repeated promises not to. the precedent it could set for future presidential pardons. amna: syrian rebels seized control of aleppo, reigniting the long-running civil war. >> our aspiration is to be a nation of respect, of freedom, of a nation of foundations and a nation of its citizens. ♪ >> 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, leonard and norma klorfine.

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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.” a buried whistle-blower report has come to light raising fresh concerns about the fitness of president-elect donald trump's pick to lead the pentagon. amna: former fox news host and defense secretary-delegate pete hegseth was on capitol hill today. question: misspent funds, mistreatment of women, intoxicated on the job, do you have any comment about that reporting at all? amna: he refused to answer media questions while meeting with alabama republican senator tommy tuberville ahead of a potential confirmation battle next year. "the new yorker"'s jane mayer investigated hegseth's time leading two nonprofits for military veterans and uncovered allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety and personal misconduct. she joins us now. jane, it's good to see you.

thanks for being with us. jane mayer, "the new yorker": thanks for having me. amna: so, you reviewed documents. you also spoke with hegseth's former colleagues at these groups that he ran. what kind of picture did they paint of hegseth as a leader? jane: it really was a picture that was, i would say, increasingly alarming in some ways. it was a picture of a leader who was pushed out of his leadership positions in two groups that were for veterans because there were so many concerns about his financial mismanagement and his personal conduct. so -- and these were relatively small groups with relatively small budgets. and the first group had only 10 people working at it, veterans for freedom. and it raised a lot of questions about how he would manage the largest department in the federal government, the most lethal and largest military in the world.

amna: jane, there's also specific allegations of alcohol abuse, some stories and anecdotes you relate people telling you about hegseth getting so drunk he had to be restrained or carried back to his hotel room. there's one incident from may of i 2015, when he's on official business traveling in ohio. he and someone else from the organization gets so drunk, they're chanting and yelling at the hotel bar. what happens there? jane: yes, i mean, this comes from a letter that was written by a member of the organization, this veterans group called concern veterans for america, which hegseth was leading at the time. and this member of it wrote a letter to the managers there, saying that hegseth's behavior was despicable and embarrassing, because what he did was, he ended up closing down the bar at 2:30 in the morning, chanting and screaming: "kill all muslims. kill all muslims.” and it was just so completely beyond the pale really for the veterans that worked in this group. and so -- and i think maybe alarming also to think about someone leading the pentagon who

has voiced such attitudes and been so out of control. amna: in your piece, you also quote democratic senator richard blumenthal, who says: "much as we might be sympathetic to people with continuing alcohol problems, they shouldn't be at the top of our national security structure.” jane, from your reporting, do we know if any of mr. hegseth's reported issues with alcohol persist to this day? jane: i mean, i think it's a very good question you as. and "the new yorker" submitted many questions to mr. hegseth and to his lawyer and gave him two days to answer them. and instead of answering any of the questions or refuting anything in the story, they just said they would have no comment. so, obviously, this is of utmost importance. we need to know whether someone who might be the top person in the defense department has a very serious alcohol problem. amna: jane, there's also now a body of reporting looking into

hegseth's personal story as well, multiple marriages and infidelities that have been documented, also troubling details from a police report related to a sexual assault allegation back in 2017. this weekend, "the new york times" also published an e-mail from his mother in 2018, in which she says in part: "on behalf of all the women, and i know it's many, you have abused in some way, i say get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” we should note that his mother has since disavowed those comments in speaking with "the new york times.” but, jane, what does your reporting show about any of this as a pattern of behavior and also that sexual assault allegation from 2017? jane: well, i mean, we have to say, of course, that he has denied sexually assaulting this woman. she's anonymous at this point. but the thing that has brought much attention to this is that he failed to disclose to the transition staff that he had secretly struck up a settlement with this woman and has been paying her and that they also

struck up a nondisclosure agreement to try to keep it secret. and so the trump administration has decided not to have the fbi investigate potential cabinet officers. so they didn't have the fbi doing a background check. and pete hegseth never told the transition staff that this was in his background. it just came up because a friend of the woman's actually went to the transition team and said, did you realize this about him? so these tales from the past in his life just seem to be surfacing one by one by one. amna: jane, the trump team was reportedly blindsided by some of the recent reporting about hegseth. from your sources, does it seem like all the potentially damaging allegations are now out in the open, that everything that senators need to weigh is out there and reported? jane: no, i actually don't think so, because, just today -- i mean, this story came out in "the new yorker" just around midnight last night.

and, by today, people have been calling me all day long with more examples of this kind of behavior from pete hegseth. so, i don't think we really, truly know the whole story yet. amna: that is jane mayer of "the new yorker" joining us tonight. jane, thank you. good to see you. jane: thanks so much for having me. ♪ geoff: last night, president joe biden issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son hunter, who was just days away from a possible prison sentence in two federal felony cases against him. it's a striking reversal of the president's promise that he would not use his authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence. the president's son, hunter biden, receiving the most sweeping presidential pardon in generations, capping years of

high-profile legal troubles and political scrutiny. he faced possible prison time for his conviction on federal gun charges back in june, as well as for separate tax crimes, for which he pleaded guilty in september. hunter ben was scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month. his pardon goes even further, covering all federal offenses that hunter biden -- quote -- "has committed or may have committed or taken part in over the last decade, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.” it's something president biden has insisted repeatedly he would not do. david muir, "world news tonight" anchor and managing editor: have you ruled out a pardon for your son? joe biden, president of the united states: yes. i'm not going to do anything. decision and i will do that and i will not pardon him. geoff: now president biden is calling the prosecution politically motivated. in a written statement, the president said his son was "selectively and unfairly prosecuted. no reasonable person who looks at the facts of hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than hunter was singled out only

because he is my son. and that is wrong.” today, white house press secretary karine jean-pierre defended president biden's decision while speaking to reporters. >> two things could be true. you can believe in the department of justice system and you could also believe that the process was infected politically. and that's what the president says. geoff: it all comes less than two months before president biden's term ends and president-elect donald trump's begins. on social media, mr. trump slammed the move, calling it an abuse and miscarriage of justice. the pardon cannot be rescinded once he takes office. mr. trump has repeatedly said he'd use his second term to investigate and prosecute the bidens. congressman james comer, one of several republicans leading the congressional investigations into the biden family, wrote on x: "the charges hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg. president biden and his family continue to do everything they

can to avoid accountability.” even some democrats join the chorus of criticism. colorado governor jared polis expressed his disappointment in the president for putting his family ahead of the country. and he called the decision a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. geoff: and we are joined now by margaret love. she previously served as us pardon attorney under former presidents george h.w. bush and bill clinton. thanks for being with us. margaret love, former u.s. pardon attorney: it's a pleasure. geoff: put the sweeping nature of this pardon in context for us. it not only spares hunter biden from doing possible prison time. it also insulates him from ever facing criminal charges for any crimes he possibly could have committed over the past decade. margaret: yes, it's a little hard to compare this to anything in the recent past, certainly. it's a very, very broad grant. the only thing that i can compare it to is the pardon that president ford gave president

nixon, which was also a preemptive pardon for a period of five years. in this case, it's a period of 11 years. so it's really quite unique, other than the nixon pardon. geoff: and this pardon is a departure for president biden, i who has vowed not to interfere with the justice department's actions and who has mostly avoided weighing in on his son's legal issues. there is this question, though, of the intervening events, the reelection of donald trump, the prospect of hunter biden being at the mercy of a trump justice department, where donald trump has explicitly said that he intends to use the criminal justice system to exact revenge, and his nomination of someone, kash patel, who has promised to go after the bidens if he is confirmed as fbi director. does any of that bolster the justification for this pardon? margaret: well, obviously, it

was very important to president biden. i'm not going to comment on whether it justifies this kind of a grant or not. i mean, i'm more interested in talking about the very unique, almost unique nature of the grant itself, which could be questionable, to tell you the truth. there was a lot of conversation at the time of the nixon grant. eminent constitutional scholars debated whether the president had the power, under the constitutional pardon power, to grant preemptive pardons. i know there was conversation at the end of the trump administration about preemptive pardons, and a decision was made, apparently, not to grant them. so i think that the real interest for me here is the nature of that grant. and i guess it will, in due course, be found whether it's at

appropriate use of the president's power or not. geoff: how does this pardon for hunter biden fit into president biden's overall clemency record? margaret: oh, gosh, well, he doesn't have a very lengthy record, to tell you the truth. i have been hoping that he would grant a number of pardons that -- he's granted for your pardons then at least 100 years. but it's been a pretty spare record, to tell you the truth. i've been hoping that he would grant a number of pardons, in many cases that a been waiting in the backlog for years, and it would be great if you took this opportunity to grant some of those pardons and sentence commutations that have been awaiting his action. he has not had a great deal of

interest, apparently, in pardoning to date. this may jog things loose. hope so. geoff: what precedent does a pardon like this set, in your view? margaret: well, i mean, it certainly suggests that another president might try it if it's not challenged. it's very interesting because president trump himself was very adventuresome in his use of the pardon power, intervened in many pending cases, the way no president had done before. but what was characteristics of president trump's pardons were that he always pardoned a very specific offense, specific charges. one exception to that is the michael flynn pardon, which got a little bit broader, pardoning anything that the special counsel might bring against him. but that was a more defined jurisdiction than the hunter

biden pardon or the nixon pardon, for that matter. so you never know what might happen in the future. it's a power that has rarely been tested in the courts, but i expect perhaps that there may be some opportunity to do that going forward. geoff: margaret love, thank you for your time this evening. margaret: you're most welcome. thank you. geoff: the day's other headlines -- vanessa: i'm in for stephanie sy with news hour west. there are the latest headlines. the winter storm that blasted northern states all weekend still won't let up. nearly seven million people are under winter weather alerts today, as lake-effect snow coming off of the great lakes continues to pound parts of the upper midwest and northeast. western michigan could see another foot of snow today, while other parts of the state,

as well as new york and pennsylvania, are digging out from close to four feet of snow from this weekend. man: this weather is buffalo weather. it's amazing weather. it's great weather. geoff: that didn't stop tailgaters ahead of the buffalo bills' sunday night game. the team paid fans $20 an hour to help dig out the stadium before kickoff. the snow wasn't enough to deter most air travelers either. the tsa says more than three million people took post-thanksgiving flights yesterday, and that set a new record. turning now to the middle east, where for the first time since the cease-fire took effect last week, hezbollah has fired projectiles into a disputed border region in southern lebanon. the militant group says it was a warning shot for what it called repeated israeli violations of the truce. no one was reported hurt. israel responded with its own airstrikes in retaliation hours later. a lebanese official accused israel today of breaching the cease-fire more than 50 times in recent days with strikes and

other provocations. despite that, a state department spokesperson said the cease-fire is working and that claims of violations are being investigated. >> broadly speaking, it has been successful in stopping the fighting. now, with respect to violations or potential violations of the cease-fire, we set a mechanism up to look into this very question, where the united states, along with france, will engage with the israeli military, will engage with the lebanese military to look at potential violations. vanessa: meantime, israel's military says an israeli-american soldier previously thought to be alive in hamas captivity is now presumed dead. the body of omer neutra of new york was taken by hamas in southern israel during the october 7 attacks. he was one of seven american citizens held in gaza. four, including neutra, have been pronounced dead. the biden administration is preparing another $725 million in weapons assistance for ukraine.

that's on top of more than $680 million in weapons that german chancellor olaf scholz announced today during a surprise visit to kyiv. it was his first visit to the ukrainian capital in more than two years. the trip comes after ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy recently criticized scholz for speaking to russian president vladimir putin back in november about opening negotiations to end the war. their in kyiv today, scholz emphasized solidarity. >> my very clear message from kyiv to putin, we're in this for the long haul, and we will stand by ukraine for as long as it takes. vanessa: more than 200 people have been detained in the country of georgia amid demonstrations now going into their fifth night. tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital of tbilisi this evening in protest of the pro-russian government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the european union.

more than 100 police officers have been injured in clashes with demonstrators. it's all unfolding after october elections that were seen as a referendum on joining the e.u. georgia's opposition says the vote was rigged by moscow. the food and drug administration and the centers for disease control said today there investigating and -- a salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers. 18 people have been hospitalized. the affected produce was gone in mexico. distributes have issued voluntary recalls. and there is turnover in the top jobs at two major companies tonight. ceo carlos tavares is stepping down after nearly four years in the role. stellantis is the parent company of jeep, ram, chrysler, and

dodge. it has struggle with slumping sales. and pat gelsinger retired after struggling to keep pace in the chip space. still to come, how the civil war in syria has suddenly reignited. tamara keith and leanne caldwell reflect on the latest political headlines. and mementos from the lost cast, a memorial project that honors victims of gun violence. >> this is a pbs news hour from the david and rubenstein studio at w eta in washington, and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: in syria today, russian and syrian warplanes targeted civilian areas held by opposition fighters. and turkey, which backs some of the multifaceted opposition,

called on syrian president bashar al-assad to negotiate. it all comes days after rebels swept into parts of northwest syria that the regime had controlled for years and reignited a once-static war with broad implications for a region already embroiled in conflict. nick schifrin reports. and a warning: some of the images in this story are disturbing. nick: in opposition-held idlib today, russian scorched earth, airstrikes on behalf of its syrian ally against syrian civilians inside a hospital. russia has long targeted syrians who oppose the regime. today's strikes in idlib and this weekend on aleppo once again targeted victims who weren't even born when this 14-year-old war began. they are terrifying and forced civilians to flee, but, today, it is government forces on the run.

on friday, "news hour" syria producer abdul razzaq al-shami filmed as rebels prepared a surprise assault. for the last nine years, the opposition in green has held most of idlib province in northwest syria, the kurds backed by the u.s. in yellow in the northeast, the regime and its allies in red, with pockets of land controlled by the islamic state in purple. back in 2016, after five years of fighting, syrian soldiers, with the help of russian airstrikes and iranian-backed militias, recaptured aleppo, syria's second largest city. last week, a patchwork of opposition groups, the islamist hay'at tahrir al-sham, designated by the u.s. as terrorists, and the turkish-backed syrian national army took aleppo back in days. on friday morning, we filmed his opposition fighters open fire on aleppo's outskirts. by 10:00 p.m. that night, fighters and civilians celebrated inside aleppo after government forces melted away.

this war had forced half the country to flee their homes, and now some of the opposition reunited with family they'd been separated from for nearly a decade. by day, rebels tore down their tormentor. regardless of their group, they're united in their hatred for the authoritarian leader who long ago chose to starve, slaughter and suffocate, rather than serve his people. and they unfurled the flag of free syria. samer al-qarbi is an attorney who returned to his hometown, aleppo, for the first time in eight years. >> now is a good opportunity to return and build this country and get rid of the militias. our aspiration is to be a nation of respect, a nation of freedom, a nation with foundations and a nation of its citizens. nick: opposition fighters reached aleppo's military academy, a former base for syria and its iran-backed allies. abdul razzaq al-shami was with them.

>> these rocket launchers you see behind me were used by hezbollah, iran, and assad forces to fire rockets that targeted civilians in the western countryside of aleppo. they caused the deaths and injuries of hundreds throughout the past few years. nick: the opposition's sweeping success in aleppo is just the beginning, vowed political activist muhammad al akhras. >> now it started with the liberation of aleppo. until we liberate all of syria, all syrian soil from this ruling regime that has sat on syrian's chest for some 60 years. nick: today, syrian soldiers said they're regrouping and fighting back. but the opposition expanded its fighting to nearby hama province in western syria. the assad regime struggles come as ally russia is bogged down in ukraine and allies hezbollah and iran have been diminished by israel. the biden administration has

been cautious in its comments on syria, but today called for de-escalation and a political process to end the decade-plus civil war. to explain and explore these latest developments, i'm joined again by charles lister, a senior fellow who focuses on this conflict at the middle east institute here in washington. charles lister, thanks very much. welcome back to the "news hour”" why do you think the syrian opposition has gone on the offensive now and why do you think it appears to have been so successful? charles lister, middle east institute: well, i think, at the root of it, the crisis and the conflict inside syria has been far from over for a very long time. yes, the lines of territorial control have been frozen for around four years, but conflict itself has been hot daily, 365 days a year, since 2020, when a major cease-fire was announced in 2020. so the armed opposition has been preparing itself for exactly this scenario for the last four years, intensively training, adding to their capabilities, and, of course, waiting for the right kind of timing.

the regional crisis, of course, i think has added to that. but, ultimately speaking, these armed groups believe that they could bring the fight to the regime, that they could defeat the regime on the battlefield. and this offensive was meant to start in mid-october. it was paused for a while due to turkish pressure. but then, of course, it began over the last week. nick: most recently, we saw a cease-fire in lebanon between hezbollah and israel. but, perhaps more relevantly, we have seen hezbollah and iran get pushed back by israel and we see russia bogged down in ukraine, as we mentioned before. how does that play into the timing of this? charles: well, i think all of those things are accurate. but at the same time, what we have really seen on the ground in syria over the last 18-plus months is that none of those actors have actually substantively changed their presence on syrian soil. hezbollah remain on all of the same front lines that they have always been on. the russian troop levels remain exactly the same.

they have the same number of jets and air defense systems and everything else. so, if there's any difference that all of those events have made, i would argue it's distraction. it's not resources. i think what's made the biggest difference is that the syrian regime itself has stagnated over the last four-and-a-half years of so-called frozen conflict. it has been increasingly kind of corrupted by organized crime that is rife within the syrian military and within the intelligence apparatus that would traditionally have coordinated a response to this. and i think, frankly speaking, that's why we have seen the collapse in regime front lines. nick: the opposition group hay'at tahrir al-sham, or hts, helped lead the offensive on aleppo this weekend. the u.s. calls them terrorists. they are a former al-qaida affiliate, but they say they have moderated. have they? charles: yes, they have moderated, but they also remain similarly problematic. they have done away with their global agenda. they have genuinely broken away from al-qaida, and that was a

very combustible breakup back in 2016 and 2017. they have turned inward to syria. they portray their actions and have done over the last five or so years in a more nationalist bent. but, yes, their religious conservatism remains. and i think, ultimately, the test will come three or six months down the line as to whether or not hts ends up being as kind of welcoming and as inclusive as it's claiming to be today with it being in control of aleppo city. the early signs are positive, but this is very early days. nick: as we reported earlier, we have seen russian airstrikes, as well as russian and iranian diplomatic support for syria. we are seeing iranian-backed militias from iraq entering syria. do you believe that will be enough to save the regime? charles: all the manpower that the regime can get at this point will help. one of the main problems is that some of the regime's most

capable military units were not on the northwestern front lines when this offensive took place, the elite fourth division run by bashar al-assad's brother maher, another unit known as the 25th special tasks division. so both of those have been deployed onto the front line in a province called hama. and that is where fighting has really intensified over the past 48 hours. on the other hand, there is another side of the picture here, which is that the hts and various other opposition groups only have so much manpower at their disposal. if they continue to try to push too deep or further deeply into syria, they risk overstretching themselves and making themselves very vulnerable to a counterattack. nick: the u.s. has more than 800 soldiers in northeast syria aligned with kurdish forces known as the sdf. and, in fact, we saw some of those kurdish forces having to

flee some of the territory they control over the last couple of days. what's at stake for u.s. interests in this moment? charles: well, for now, relatively little. the u.s. has a very minimal stake in northwestern syria. i suppose the u.s. has more to worry about in terms of the knock-on effect that this is likely to have on isis' resurgence that is taking place in central and eastern syria right now totally in parallel to these developments. the real risk here is that the syrian regime's most capable units that have been deployed in the central desert to try to challenge -- frankly, incapably, but they have been trying to challenge isis, have all been removed. so, suddenly, in central syria, where isis has been rebuilding, there is a total vacuum. and that is likely to have a very significant positive knock-on effect for isis, which will inevitably have a knock-on effect into the northeast of syria, where u.s. troops are present and were already, frankly, struggling to challenge that resurgence. and that will be all the more the case in the coming months. nick: charles lister of the middle east institute, thank you very much.

charles: thank you. ♪ amna: well, while many of us were taking a break this holiday weekend, washington was still busy at work with everything from pardons to cabinet picks. here to get us caught up is tamara keith of npr and leigh ann caldwell from the washington post. amy walter is away. it's great to have you both here. so, tamara, i want to start with you, because we have now seen in the aftermath of president biden pardoning his son hunter some backlash from his fellow democrats. we heard from colorado governor jared polis earlier. senator bennet has weighed in saying he believes biden put personal interest ahead of duty. senator welch has said, while it's understandable, as a father, he said, as the nation's chief executive, it is unwise. does your reporting, tam, showed that president biden weighed these consequences, this potential backlash, and the precedent that it sets before making this decision? tamara keith, national public radio: certainly, several

members of his own party have come out to say that they feel like president biden, by doing my this, is ceding the political high ground on an issue that democrats have hit incoming president trump on. what i will say is that president biden spent this last weekend with his family in nantucket. this is a family retreat. there they get together there everything thanksgiving. and president biden has always had a political blind spot when it comes to his family, in particular his son hunter, and the challenges that hunter has presented to biden over the years, the challenges that hunter biden's various issues have presented to biden. this has always been an area that has been a political blind spot, has been almost off-limits for biden. i think another issue that this raised was simply that the white house, president biden himself and his spokesperson, karine

jean-pierre, repeatedly said that this wasn't going to happen. a lot of people didn't believe that biden really wouldn't ultimately pardon his son, but by then reversing course, that affects the credibility of this white house. amna: leigh ann, what about on capitol hill? what are your democratic sources telling you about their reaction and how this complicates their path forward? leigh ann caldwell, the washington post: yes. well, the democrats who have come out in opposition to this, senator elizabeth warren told reporters just a few moments before i got here that what's wrong is wrong and this is wrong. and so there are some senators who think that the president biden should not have stooped to donald trump's level and done what -- something that donald trump might have done in his presidency. but then there are some democrats who -- privately who aren't speaking out saying one thing or another say, you know what, this is what -- this is something that was important to president biden and this might be something that hasn't been

done in the scope in years, but it's his prerogative to do. amna: meanwhile, we know the cabinet picks continue from president-elect trump. over the weekend, he nominated kash patel to run the fbi. patel is a staunch loyalist, of course. he's repeated the lie of the stolen 2020 election. he called january 6 rioters patriots. he's also spread a number of conspiracy theories. here, in fact, is mr. patel in his own words from earlier this year and last year about his plans. >> i shut down the fbi hoover building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state, and i take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across america to chase down criminals. we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about american citizens, who helped joe biden rig presidential elections. we're going to come after you. amna: tam, he's a former federal prosecutor and public defender with little management or law enforcement experience. what does this pick say about how mr. trump views the fbi? tamara: so this pick is very

much in line with president-elect trump's many other cabinet nominees, in that this is someone who is, first and foremost, loyal to trump, who he did work in the first trump administration in several acting roles toward the end. and in those positions he was there there essentially as trump's eyes and ears in other i agencies. when it comes to the fbi, as you asked about, president trump lost faith in the fbi within days of entering the white house, essentially. as you remember, he fired the fbi director, put in place christopher wray, and now he's saying that the person that he appointed needs to be replaced with a loyalist, kash patel. and patel is someone who has echoed trump's own words about the january 6 rioters and others being patriots, being politically persecuted. trump just fundamentally

disagrees with the way the fbi i has conducted law enforcement and approached the rule of law, which, incidentally, also affected him, because he was indicted after multiple investigations and including a search of his mar-a-lago estate. amna: and, leigh ann, i know you have been tracking this. a number of republican senators have been asked about the selection of kash patel this weekend. here's what some of them had to say in response. >> one of the most tragic consequences of four years of joe biden and kamala harris is both doj and the fbi have been politicized and weaponized. and i think kash patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption in the fbi. sen. hagerty: i think kash does have relevant experience, particularly when it comes to the mandate the american public have signed of turning these agencies around that have completely corrupted. kash has pointed it out. he's probably the best at uncovering what's happened at

the fbi, and i look forward to see him taking it apart. amna: senator chuck grassley, who is in line to chair the judiciary committee, also said this, that he believes the current director, christopher wray, failed in his role. and he said that kash patel must prove to congress he will reform and restore public trust in the fbi. it's not exactly criticism there, some caution from senator grassley. are you hearing any concerns from republican senators privately about patel? leigh ann: yes, and chuck grassley is likely to oversee these confirmation hearings of kash patel. this is another tough choice for these republican senators to have to move through. this is very new for them. they just got back into town tonight. and so senators are still trying to digest. and, to be clear, a lot of these senators actually didn't know who he was very much before this. but this is going to be a nominee that republicans are going to have to grapple with, and along the same lines of matt

gaetz, where i heard a lot of, maybe he's just not going to make it through the process and he withdraws on his own, so it doesn't put them in a position to have to take a vote. but it's still very early in this process. and so a lot of senators are wanting to keep their powder dry and not put their -- put the cart before the horse. amna: well, tam, this brings us to the point where there are concerns looming over a number of nominees. we won't know for a few weeks now if they do move into confirmation hearings. but we mentioned earlier, of course, the new reporting around pete hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense. there's concerns around tulsi gabbard as well. how are senators looking at this right now in terms of this matrix of decisions that they're going to have to make? tamara: we do expect that there will be confirmation hearings that begin in early january, as is traditional, once the new congress is sworn in. and a month is a very long time. if you think about all of the

reports and other issues that have come out with some of these nominees in a matter of a couple of weeks, it's possible that more of the sort of public vetting will occur before they ever get to a confirmation hearing. but you're right, that senators have a lot to figure out. they have to decide exactly what they're willing to tolerate. and republican senators are willing to tolerate a lot. they're willing to give trump a lot of leeway, in part because they -- some of them are in office because of trump, because the senate is now much more -- senate republicans are largely much more in line with trump than they were when he came into office back in 2017. and i will say one question that is looming for me is, there still has not been a memorandum of understanding signed between the department of justice and the trump transition to begin the fbi background checks and vetting that are a traditional part of the confirmation

process. we also don't know whether the trump administration, the incoming administration, is going to participate with the office of government ethics and that sort of conflict of interest vetting that is normally a part of the process, and whether senators, republican senators, will demand that. those are still really open questions about this process. amna: leigh ann, about 30 seconds left. what's your take on this? leigh ann: yes, so senators are -- as tam said, there's a lot of deference to the president to fill his cabinet positions. there's a lot of pressure from senators, voters, republican base voters, to do what the president wants. everyone is going to have to take in their own political calculations and political capital, including if they are up for reelection in 2026. and so it is going to be -- it could be a tough vote for republicans. amna: and a month is a long time, as tam said. amna: leigh ann caldwell, tamara keith, always great to see you

both. thank you so much. ♪ geoff: we will be back shortly with a look at a very personal memorial project for victims of gun violence. amna: but first, take a moment to your from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support which helps keep programs like this one on the air. ♪ geoff: for those of you staying with us, this holiday travel season means a lot of flying and the aviation sector is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. in this on-call report, miles

o'brien looks at efforts to create greater fields for the sky. >> a half-mile from boston's logan airport, carlos is helping grease the skids for ambitious goal, a race for the carbon footprint of airline travel. he is at a wing stop, harvesting used cooking oil. it contains hydrocarbons and can be refined into sustainable aviation fuel. >> every time i fly back to brazil, i think about it, maybe i help here. reporter: he drives for a subsidiary of a finnish oil refiner that is now a leader in renewable fuel production, including sustainable aviation fuel. dave kimball is their president and ceo. >> the really cool thing about cooking oil is it has already

had one life, and now we are having a second life with it. reporter: mahoney currently sucks about 400 million pounds of grease out of dumpsters nationwide. it plans to retrieve a billion by 2030. even though sustainable aviation fuel is two or three times more expensive than the fossil alternative, the airlines are demanding it, facing public backlash over its climate footprint. the industry has set an aggressive goal, net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and it has no other short-term alternative to fossil fuels. globally, sustainable aviation fuel production will likely reach nearly a half billion gallons in 2024, a sixfold increase since 2022, and yet still only one half of 1% of the 99 billion gallon annual burn rate for jet fuel. in 2021, the biden administration launched a

sustainable aviation fuel grant -- grand challenge. the goal is to produce 35 billion gallons in the u.s. by 2050, but to get there, greece -- grease is not the only word. jerry is the director of the center for biological innovation at the oak ridge national tennessee. he says oil from fire grease, soybeans, and poor and can produce a third of that goal and adding hydrocarbons to existing ethanol production can address another third. the rest will have to come from new crops dedicated to energy. he says 20 million to 40 million acres of land will be needed. there are about 900 million acres of farmland in the u.s. >> you cannot have it all and have to make a choice between food and fuel. >> there is enough land potentially available to produce 35 million gallons of aviation fuel. >> the team is partnering with

17 other institutions, including the university of illinois urbana-champaign, home to the center of advanced bio products innovation. agronomist emily heaton is a professor in the department of crop sciences. she gave me a tour of their energy farm, where they grow, tweak, and study so-called bioenergy crops. when you say bioenergy crops, what exactly are we talking about? >> we are talking about crops that are used to capture carbon out of the atmosphere and used in place of plants that captured carbon out of the atmosphere millions of years ago, which are fossil fuels. miles: one of the leading contenders is a already, fast-growing, perennial grass plant that thrives in cold climates.

inside this greenhouse, they are crossbreeding it with sugarcane, hoping to add fatty compounds known as lipids to it to make the conversion to aviation fuel cheaper and easier. how much growth is this? how long did it take for them to get this big? >> for a plant, this is a single growing season's worth of biomass. miles: there is an equal amount of biomass beneath the surface. >> if you include the avoided fossil missions because we are not fertilizing much, it comes back carbon negative. miles: not just zero, carbon negative. the energy farm is outfitted with a million-dollar network of air, water, soil, and whether sensors to verify the true carbon budget of these crops. but ultimately it will be the budget of farmers that will determine the success of these ideas. it is a chicken and egg problem, as i learned one morning when i visited emily's parents' farm,

20 miles west of urbana. >> you're going to put a wire here, here, and here. miles: johnny and connie are focused on pasture raised beef and ham. -- and lamb. they know a lot about growing grass. right now, it is not a viable option for most farmers. the infrastructure does not exist for grass production. if you are thinking about growing grass that ultimately might fuel an airplane, the system is not set up for that, is it? >> no, it is a long way off. miles: to entice farmers to grow energy crops, they will need new equipment, financing, and crop insurance. right now, it is a field of dreams, except if you build it, the market may not come. but this family is undeterred. energy crops not only offer benefits for the climate, they also improve the local environment, reducing runoff and improving soil health, adding

diversity. >> getting back to our roots using contemporary carbon to base our society instead of fossil carbon is a choice that we need to make. if we are to persist on this planet. miles: and still freely travel around the planet without carrying excess carbon baggage. for the pbs news hour, i miles am o'brien in boston. geoff: over 125 people are killed by guns every day in the u.s. to address that epidemic through art, the gun violence memorial project shares intimate details of lives lost. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. jared: they are the essence of home, proud structures with peak

-- peaked roofs and smiling faces. within your glass bricks, the stuff of home, a treasured ball caps, a beloved comic book hero, a triangle of toy trucks, objects left behind when their owners lost their lives to gun violence. >> we are able to see a little more into the personalities, the interests, the passions of those folks who are no longer here who have been taken do gun violence. the gun violence memorial project is a living and participatory memorial to victims of gun violence. jared: john is one of the designers of the gun violence memorial project, a traveling memorial. it is comprised of four houses each with 700 glass bricks. that was the number of americans killed by guns on a weekly basis in 2018 when the memorial was conceived. >> my most heartbreaking

experience of the memorial was hearing families say come look at my house, come look at my child, come see what i contributed. that level of engagement has really become, as it was intended to be, a vehicle for healing. jared: the memorial has been populated by objects received at nationwide collection events, the families of victims contributed personal belongings. >> i chose the computer mouse because he is always on the computer. jared: her only child, ross, was killed in the 2007 virginia tech shooting, a nine minute rampage that left 32 people dead and more than a dozen wounded. next to her son's computer mouse, the remains of a victim -- the belongings of a victim of a drive-by shooting in washington, d.c. it has brought the mothers together. >> i can call anyone at any hour, and i have met a lot of

people from mass shootings and things, and i can just say hey, are you up? yep. that helps a lot. jared: do you do that a fair amount? >> yeah. since we lost ross, i haven't slept. >> there is a natural path of walking through the doorways. jared: ruth is the curator of boston's institute of contemporary art. the memorial, she says, is a way for visitors to understand gun violence victims as people, more than the headlines that pop up in the united states. >> we talked to the family member about how they want those objects displayed, what they want them to convey. sometimes the jersey will be folded in a way so that kid's -- the team's logo can be shown, or the guitar pick can be angled in such a way that guests can see the angle of the guitar. i take it as a portrait. >> they can no longer speak, so

we must speak for the dead. jared: clement tina's son lewis was caught in fatal crossfire in boston, on his way to a teens against gang violence meeting. she founded an institute in her son's name. his brick includes a christmas hat and library card for both the holiday and books he loved. >> was the experience of interacting with these homes? >> it is a mixed emotion. it is sadness, it is anger that this has to happen. at the same time is a sense of, i want to say celebration, celebration that they are not forgotten. >> installations like this one mark and evolution and what public memorials can be. the gun violence memorial project was a collaborative effort, including architects at mass design group, the artist hank willis thomas, and victim'' family members.

>> we are responding to calls and asks of how do we tell this story in a way that allows us to see more of ourselves represented in it. >> mass design group is also the firm behind the national memorial for peace and justice, in montgomery, alabama, which immerses visitors in the country's history of lynchings. it teamed with hank willis thomas for the embrace, boston's memorial to martin luther king jr. and caretta scott king, with a focus on their love. the firm is now working on memorials to both emmett till and the peaceful protesters attacked as they began a now historic march in selma 60 years ago. john, who leads the public firm's memorials lab, says these sites should be galvanizing ones, especially for future generations, in this case wanting to see an end to gun violence. >> we continue to insert these houses in the public sphere so that we are having a

conversation about the impact of gun violence so that people just demand more. >> for the pbs news hour, i'm jared bowen in boston. geoff: that is the news hour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. geoff: and i'm amna: -- and i mom known about us. on behalf of the entire team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> this is the "pbs news hour" from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington and and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

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