♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, with vice president harris presiding, congress formally certifies donald trump's election victory, under the long shadow of the capitol riot four years ago today. amna: canada's prime minister justin trudeau announces he's resigning, amid mounting public disapproval.

geoff: and a veteran's decision to take his own life and detonate a cybertruck in las vegas refocuses attention on mental health care for members of the armed services ♪ announcer: 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 discover the music and history of the mighty mississippi. his lines. -- american cruise lines. proud sponsor of pbs news hour. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and

friends of the news hour including leonard and norma klorfine and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. ♪ >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to support a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ ♪ >> this program was made possible

by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ geoff: welcome to the newshour. congress today formally certified president-elect donald trump's election victory. amna: as congressional correspondent lisa desjardins explains, it was a routine procedural moment, in striking contrast to the violent insurrection of four years ago. lisa: an unusual scene, a winter storm all but shutting down the nation's capital. >> house come to order. lisa: but congress at work with a historic charge, counting electoral votes and -- >> the votes for president of the united states are as follows. lisa: certifying that former president donald trump will soon be president again. >> donald j. trump of the state of florida -- >> lisa: there were no objections, just repeated cheers

as winning states for each party were announced. presiding over this, in her role as vice president, kamala harris, the woman who hoped this day would be hers. instead, she did her duty, and gaveled trump's victory into history. >> donald j. trump of the state of florida has received 312 votes. kamala harris of the state of california has received 226 votes. lisa: on social media, former vice president mike pence, who rejected pressure from trump in 2021, wrote it was "particularly admirable" that she presided over an election she lost. harris told reporters americans must be willing to fight for and respect democracy. >> otherwise, it is very fragile, and it will not able to withstand moments of crisis. and today, america's democracy stood. lisa: for her replacement, a standout moment. senator jd vance of ohio was present for the certification of his win as trump's vp. outside, beefed up security surrounded the capitol. but the tall barriers stood

untested. snow, rather than protests, blanketed the national mall. >> we are not going to take it anymore. this is our country. lisa: a stark contrast to four years ago, when a mob of trump supporters, fed lies of a stolen election, easily overwhelmed bike rack barriers, assaulted police, and stormed the capitol. >> everyone just get down. lisa: the violence delayed things. congress returned that evening with 145 republicans still voting against certifying. but they failed. the riot is now the largest prosecution in department of justice history. so far, 1,500 people have been charged or convicted for their actions that january 6th,590 charged with assaulting or impeding police. some 700 people have been sentenced to time behind bars. but all of them are now on the cusp of a promised pardon from trump, as he again stressed last month on nbc. >> yeah. i'm looking first day. >> you're going to issue these pardons? >> these people have been there, how long is it? three, four years.

lisa: today on the senate floor, democratic leader chuck schumer called for trump to reconsider. >> pardoning the criminals who assaulted police officers, and tried to halt the democratic process, would be a dangerous endorsement of political violence. lisa: president for two more weeks, joe biden wrote an op-ed in the washington post, calling on americans to remember january 6th. as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. to remember that democracy, even in america, is never guaranteed. today, certification again felt like a formality. but it had more, unseen guardrails. reforms passed after the insurrection raised the bar for objecting, and clarified the vice president's role as "purely ministerial". >> i think we'll remember the people who were lost, the people who were injured, the people who were wounded, and all of their families, but i think we can feel good about the fact that we still at this point have a functioning constitutional democracy.

lisa: democratic function will be on display in two weeks when trump returns to take the oath of office, his second. trump took to social media today to call this is a big moment in history. republicans will control the house, senate, and white house. but razor-thin margins mean even the smallest divisions could derail the incoming president's agenda. trump wants one massive, partisan deal, loading almost every republican priority into one multi-trillion dollar tax and spending package to come. that plan is at odds with that announced by other leaders at the capitol who envision separate smaller bills. snow did not shut down congress today, but for all the tranquility and normalcy, expectations are for a hard-to-predict, potentially wild ride ahead. amna: and to catch us up on the latest news on the hill today, i'm joined by our lisa desjardins. it was striking to see those images from four years ago. a very normal procedure was

upended by violence. you were inside the capital years ago and you were inside today as it unfolded without incident. what did you hear from lawmakers about the mood? lisa: that's right, you were right outside for that. it was an emotional day, surprisingly so. there have been anniversaries of january 6 since 2021 but there hasn't been an anniversary of the electoral college certification. being in the room today and talking especially to democrats was highly emotional. i spoke with more than one, handful even that were brought to tears. surprisingly, they didn't mean to come to tears when they were there on the floor, but they felt themselves really drawn back into that moment, felt themselves fearing that perhaps something like that isn't all the way out of the realm of possibility. there is a concern about the -- from republicans and democrats about the whitewashing of january 6.

the idea that it wasn't that big of a deal, that people want to move on. and also in that group, capitol police officers. for those who were there that day, it is a spectrum of emotions. some still feel betrayed. the police officer who went on to run for congress told me tonight, how can he move on when there haven't been consequences, and when trump still hasn't closed the door for this kind of activity. other police officers are more jaded. amna: wild today, republicans are marking the governing trifecta they have won. they have control of the white house, senate and house. what does today mean to them? lisa: for republicans it was a celebration. they won the presidency. they were there together and they have the trifecta. but there is another late -- layer. a couple republicans admitted that they have been carrying the water of the idea of a stolen election.

many of them couldn't speak out publicly against former president donald trump and the lies he told about it. and now he won in an election that is fair and square. them, the shame after these four years, all of these issues remain hovering above the capital. amna: lisa desjardins with the latest on the big day from capitol hill. thank you, lisa. lisa: you are welcome. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. a major winter storm is still rolling across the u.s., beginning with blizzard conditions in the plains last night, and dropping snow onto mid-atlantic states this morning. at least four people have died, and dozens have been injured. the national weather service warned some places could see their heaviest snowfall in a decade. geoff bennett has our report. geoff: in washington, d.c. this

morning, the competition was fierce. >> you just all me nail that guy in the face. geoff: huge crowds gathered at meridian hill park for a i'm less day tradition. the snowball fight. the nation's capital received its first major snow of the winter as a polar vortex chills a large part of the country. baltimore was blanketed in white this morning as maryland closed government offices and canceled classes. temperatures are expected to plunge from the northeast to as far south as florida. in woodbridge, virginia, residents were snowed in. >> my four-wheel-drive broke down. i'm using the two wheel drive. hopefully i can get out today. and hopefully a plow comes tomorrow. that's us out. geoff: the storm kicked off in the central states on sunday before moving eastward. fighting wins created -- biting winds created blizzard conditions in kansas yesterday covering the roads with snow and ice.

10 inches have fallen there and more than 14 are expected for kansas and parts of northern missouri. the storm complicated air travel causing more than 1300 flights to be canceled and 8500 to be delayed. as the storm spread east, dozens of semitrucks were back up in -- backed up in downtown cincinnati. a cluster of trucks stuck in the snow on a ramp leading to a seven hour delay. hundreds of thousands were without power across kentucky, indiana, virginia, west virginia illinois and missouri. >> couldn't be worse. geoff: kentucky declared a state of gen z, closing government buildings and many schools. louisville had more than seven inches of snow blowing out the old record of 3 inches set in 1910. louisville's mayor said the snow would end soon urged residents to stay off the roads. >> give us a little more time. be patient. don't get back on the roads yet. give us some time for the trucks

and the plows and the salt to make progress. once the accumulation ends. stephanie: in other headlines, president biden is taking steps to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling across a huge stretch of federal waters. altogether, the action affects more than 625 million acres of ocean along both coasts, plus the eastern gulf of mexico and the northern bering sea in alaska. the biden administration says the environmental and economic risks of drilling in those areas outweigh their potential economic benefit. president-elect trump has vowed to, quote, "unban it immediately," but that would likely need an act of congress. u.s. steel and nippon steel are suing the biden administration for blocking their nearly $15 billion merger deal. in a lawsuit filed in federal court today, the companies say the decision was based on politics, and had no legal basis. in a separate filing, they also allege that the head of the steelworkers union and a rival

steelmaker engaged in racketeering to tank the buyout. in south korea, the government's anti-corruption agency has asked the police to take over its efforts to detain impeached president yoon suk yeol. pro-yoon demonstrators gathered outside of his residence in seoul today. that's where presidential guards blocked investigators from detaining yoon last week. authorities are investigating whether yoon's declaration of martial law in december amounts to rebellion. it's all unfolding as u.s. secretary of state antony blinken met with his counterpart in seoul today. he said south korea's political crisis would not hurt its relationship with the u.s. >> the united states has full confidence in south korea's institutions and we reaffirm our unwavering support for the korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions. we trust that the republic of korea, as a leading global democracy, will proceed in full accordance with its

constitution and the rule of law. stephanie: back in the u.s. a judge in new york has rejected donald trump's attempt to delay sentencing in his hush money case, scheduled for friday. trump's legal team said the sentencing as planned would force him to appeal the verdict while in office and, quote, "deal with criminal proceedings for years to come." trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifing business records last may. the judge has said he does not intend to give trump any jail time. meantime, a separate judge in new york found trump's former lawyer, rudy giuliani, to be in contempt of court today. that was for failing to cooperate in the handover of millions of dollars in assets to the two former election workers he defamed. the lawyers for ruby freeman and shaye moss say giuliani has displayed a "consistent pattern of willful defiance" over the last few months in supplying what's needed to pay down the $148 million defamation judgment

against him. venezuelan opposition leader edmundo gonzalez met with president biden at the white house today. the u.s. recognizes gonzalez as the winner of last year's disputed presidential election. he's on a regional tour to rally support for removing venezuela's incumbent president nicolas maduro from office. maduro is set to start his third term later this week. outside of the white house today, gonzalez would not reveal what he and mr. biden spoke about, but said the meeting was "long and fruitful." >> we are grateful for the support that the government of the united states has given us in this struggle for democratic recovery in venezuela. we will ensure that the road to restoration and democracy is paved as soon as possible. stephanie: gonzalez also said he's in contact with president-elect trump's team. the city of minneapolis this afternoon approved a police reform deal with the federal government that stems from the

2020 murder of george floyd. the agreement, known as a consent decree, requires long term supervision of the city's police force by a federal court. it follows a report in 2023 that found systemic discrimination towards racial minorities and violations of constitutional rights. a judge must still approve today's agreement. the state of louisiana has reported the nation's first bird flu-related human fatality. health officials say the patient was over the age of 65, and was reported to have underlying medical conditions. in a statement, louisiana's department of health said the un-named person contracted the disease after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds. since march, more than 60 confirmed bird flu infections have been reported in the u.s., but most of them have been mild. the death toll from a new year's eve fireworks explosion at a

home in hawaii has risen to four. a 3 year old boy died today from severe injuries. more than 20 people were injured in the blast, captured on drone footage. six people had to be airlifted to a burn center in phoenix. the disaster occurred after a lit bundle of aerial fireworks fell on its side and shot into two crates containing additional fireworks. the pentagon said today that it's sent 11 yemeni prisoners from the guantanamo bay detention center in cuba to oman, as the biden administration looks to draw down the prison population there. none of the released men had been charged with crimes during their two-decades of detention. their departures leaves just 15 men at guantanamo. still to come on the "newshour", tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. editorial turmoil at the washington post serves as a microcosm of the news media industry. and we remember those killed in

last week's new orleans attack. ♪ >> this is the pbs news hour from the david rubenstein studio at weta in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today, canada's justin trudeau announced that he intends to resign as prime minister and leader of the liberal party, under tremendous pressure from his own caucus and among his closest allies. here's part of his remarks making the announcement earlier today. >> i have always been driven by my love for canada, by my desire to serve canadians and by what is in the best interests of canadians. and canadians deserve a real choice in the next election. and it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that i cannot be the one to carry the liberal standard

into the next election. amna: trudeau will remain prime minister until the new liberal leader is selected by the end of march, as his party prepares for a formidable challenge the next election later this year. i'm joined now by professor roland paris, director of the graduate school of public and international affairs at the university of ottawa, and a former senior advisor on foreign policy to the prime minister of canada. professor, welcome. we should say there have been signs this was coming for months, but help us understand why this is happening now. was his resignation inevitable in your view? >> i think it was heading in this direction for some time. this is a story of a government and prime minister that has been in power for nearly 10 years. canadians are tired of him. polls turned decisively against him 18 months ago. he tried and his team tried everything they could to try to reverse the trend but with the prospects of an

election in 2025 and what looks like an inevitable crushing defeat in that election, even members of his own party and caucus called for him to resign. and to be replaced by someone else and that is what he did today. amna: it is worth remembering that he was a rising star in global progressive politics when he became prime minister in 2015. he had high approval ratings soon after and by last year they were down to the mid-20. -- the low 20's. what was behind that? what fueled such a spectacular fall from grace? >> like a lot of incumbency suffered from having, being in power during the pandemic, with all of the disruption that was caused by the pandemic landing on his doorstep. and also of course inflation, cost-of-living, housing. but mostly it was time. governments don't tend to last more than 10 years in canada. and he was into his ninth year.

government leaders are popular when they are elected and usually unpopular when they are defeated. i think that is the basic story here. amna: tell us about the opposition leader of the conservative party. what role did he play in trudeau's downfall? >> he was doing everything he could to weaken the liberal party. he is in an uninteresting position right now because the opposition conservative party is 24 points ahead in the polls. if there was an election today that would likely result in a really crushing majority victory for the opposition conservatives. it seems it is his job for the taking. but at the same time his net approval ratings are -17, so a lot of canadians haven't warmed up to him yet. we will see what he does in the next few weeks. and into what is almost certain to be an election in may, and

whether he can win over canadians. i suspect that if there was an election now, he would win anyway. but he does have a personal approval challenge. amna: what about the role of u.s. president-elect president trump? he has mocked prime minister trudeau. he dismissed him as a governor rather than a prime minister. he rented tariffs -- threatened tariffs. today, trump posted this, writing "many people in canada love being the 51st state. the u.s. can no longer suffer the massive subsidies and trade deficits canada needs. justin trudeau knew this and resigned." he goes on to suggest that canada should merge with the u.s. do you think mr. trump and his attitude towards trudeau played a role in his weakening? >> i would say the statement is true trump made today and previous similar ones are nonsense and viewed as nonsense here.

the dynamic that led to trudeau resigning today was underway long before mr. trump was elected in november. with that said, donald trump's threat of imposing 25% tariffs on canada and other countries once he takes office, that is taken very seriously here and it would have devastating effects. i should say with regard to donald trump's comments about canada's trade surplus that that as a result of canada selling to the u.s. the resources that the united states months including oil and electricity, 50%, more than 50% of the crude oil imports in the united states come from canada. lots of the critical minerals that fuel america's technological industries come from canada. i don't think mr. trump wants to cut those things off. amna: in the minutes or so we have left, you have mr. trump coming back into office in a few weeks. there could be a change in government in canada ahead.

what do you see as the relationship between these two countries moving forward in the near term? >> i expect that fundamental relationship remains solid because it is so much more than the relationship between the president and whoever the prime minister is. it is a very deep and inter-meshed relationship. one of the closest in the world. both economically and in many other respects as well. with that said i think we may be in for a bumpy time. for canada, we will have a lame-duck prime minister. mr. trudeau will serve until there is a new liberal leader, then there will be a liberal leader through an election campaign and the results of the election, we will have another prime minister or may be the same liberal leader so there will be uncertainty on the canadian side. and i hope that the good work that has been done to build relationships across the u.s. political system will continue to carry forward this important bilateral relationship in the months and years to come.

amna: that is professor harris -- professor paris from the university of ottawa. thank you for speaking with us. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: there are new details tonight about the man believed responsible for exploding a tesla cybertruck last week in front of the trump hotel in las vegas. police and military officials now believe matt livelsberger suffered post traumatic stress disorder, and we now have some of the final words he wrote, that might help explain the end of the life of a decorated special forces soldier. here's nick schifrin. nick: matthew livelsberger was a warrior. a career special forces soldier, known as a green beret, in 13 years he deployed 9 times, including 5 times to afghanistan, and rose to become an intelligence then team sergeant, with the rank of master sergeant.

but his final days were spent on leave, stopping at telsa charging stations on a circuitous route from colorado to las vegas, where he died by suicide before exploding his rented tesla cybertruck, in front of trump tower. in notes on his phone released by las vegas police, he called out, quote, "military and vets... be prepared to fight to get the dems out of the fed government." but he also wrote, "why did i personally do it now? i needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers i've lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives i took." u.s. officials confirm livelsberger, like so many other warriors, suffered trauma from service, including a reported traumatic brain injury. he also suffered moral injury, that he -- >> do you want to read the email? nick that he detailed to army : intelligence officer sam shoemate, who read a liverlberger email on the shawn ryan podcast. in that email, liverlsberger admitted he participated in a 2019 strike in afghanistan that he said killed hundreds of civilians, and subsequent coverup.

livelsberger was also in touch with an ex, after splitting up from his second wife. >> it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who is struggling with ptsd and other issues. nick: army officials confirm he was in therapy. quote, "livelsberger had access to and used the preservation of the force and family program. he did not display any concerning behaviors at the time, and was granted personal leave." that was just days before his life ended in las vegas. for additional perspective, we turn to retired army brigadier general stephen xenakis, a psychiatrist with extensive experience working with veterans with ptsd and traumatic brain injuries. thanks very much. welcome back to the news hour. when you look at his deployments, when you read what he wrote in the suicide note released by police and the email

, what did you see? >> it is tragic. and unfortunately, it is a story fact we have heard -- we have heard at other times. it is a story that comes out of all of these 20 years of warfare and goes back thousands of years. these men, soldiers -- these men and women that go through multiple deployments under these circumstances are really, events and the stress and the trauma pile up on them. you have all of these factors in play with him. you have his sense of moral injury which is guilt and shame that comes with what soldiers do and haven't done, knowing that there is a core ethical principle they live by. it is very individual, but that is a common principle that we have that is very important in terms of justifying

or being able to make sense out of the activities, the actions that have to be undertaken in war. you have the stress and it comes out as posttraumatic stress. there is traumatic brain injury which he, there is evidence that he suffered that also. there is injury and damage to the brain. very often these soldiers also have other injuries, muscular and skeletal pain. they have problems with sleep. we don't know in this particular circumstance if there was self-medication. sometimes prescribed medications. all of this piles up and over time it gets to be too much. i'm sorry. geoff: sorry to interrupt, can ptsd, can the reported traumatic brain injury that his ex-girlfriend reportedly said, can that really drive someone like him to do what he did?

>> what happens is it piles up and there is a period where the soldier copes as best they can. they are able to go through their daily life. they can have relationships. and then at some point it gets to be too much. maybe as they get older, as they get more responsibilities, as they think back and are haunted by the memories and it is almost like they fall off a cliff. it can be very precipitous. and they get in a dark place in their life. it is the piling on, the cumulative affect of all of these different circumstances that they are living with. geoff: forgive me again, and how does that interact with his apparent family issues? he reportedly split from his second wife days or weeks before january 1 with whom he had a young child. >> there is a lot of stress.

they are having problems with day-to-day coping, and that can particularly play out in intimate relationships. and family relationships. the feedback loop of, i can't do this, i can't do that. i don't have people supporting me or that are caring for me and that understand and their lives get worse. and the struggle gets even harder. so there is no one factor here. it is the connection of all of the factors. the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. and what is important in terms of being able to care for these men and women is really experiencing them and engaging them as the whole person they are and realizing that each of these problems they are facing will, over time, cause them to feel worse and maybe get to a

desperate situation as this man got to. geoff: you talk about experiencing with them and engaging with them. is the u.s. military doing enough, in your opinion, to provide mental health services to service members? >> they are trying as hard as they can. these are tough problems. and even with very experienced clinicians, there are people that for whatever reason cannot get better. is there more to do? that is an obligation we have as military physicians and leaders to think about what more we can do and what will we learn from this incident and the others. what can we do to improve our support? warfare is tough. people bear the burden and struggle with it. so the military is doing what it can. we do that as part of that. but we have to continue to put more energy and time to improve

our support for our service members and their families. geoff: sorry crosses -- psychiatrist dr. steve xenakis, thank you so much. >> glad to help. ♪ amna: now that congress has formally certified the results of the presidential election, a path is officially paved for president elect trump to take office later this month. for more, we turn now to our politics monday duo, amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, and tamara keith of npr. great to see you both. as you saw lisa reporting earlier, we have the certification of the election results passing without incident today. four years later, a dramatically different scene. when you look at recent polling

from the economist, it shows that less than half of all americans, 49%, believe donald trump bears some or a lot of the responsibility for the january 6 attack including 83% democrats and 17% republicans. do you feel like mr. trump and republicans have rewritten -- recast that day and rewritten political history? >> in a lot of these questions the answers that people give is a reflection of their views on donald trump matter what the question is. i don't know if that is the case here, but it certainly could be. because views of january 6 have begun closely tracking with views of donald trump. he says it was a day of love. he says it wasn't a big deal. he has also said he is going to pardon some share of the people who stormed the capital that day and have pled guilty or been found guilty of crimes. convicted of crimes.

it isn't clear yet whether it will truly be considered on a case-by-case basis or if this will be blanket pardons. but he and republicans since the very beginning, just within days, began rewriting history and describing it as a tourist visit. initially that sounded absurd to almost everyone, but over time, trump and his allies have sort of reshaped the republican party's view of this. they haven't reshaped the democratic party's view and as lisa reported, there are certainly republicans in congress that were there that day that have more complex feelings. amna: we mentioned those potential pardons. in that same poll, some 33% of americans including 63% of republicans support the pardons. of people convicted of crimes related to january 6. when you step back and look at

this day in the context of what happened four years ago, how do you look at this moment? >> i do think that if you think back to where we were in january of 2001, the possibility of donald trump coming back into the white house seemed more than remote. but i think there are three big things that happened. the first is just the passage of time. for some of us four years ago don't feel that long ago. i think for many it was a pretty significant amount of time. so it fell out of the day-to-day conversation. the second thing is that we have a partisan and fractured media environment in which you get fed views that align with your own personal feelings whether it is about donald trump or other issues. and i also think that we have the fact that the president wasn't prosecuted for this.

the former people -- president was never prosecuted for this. there wasn't a case brought against him. all of those things together i think helped to put this issue more on the back burner in the 2024 election that we thought it would be in 2021. at the same time i think it would be very dangerous for republicans or president trump to assume that voters don't think that these actions were problematic. that they support the pardoning. as you pointed out only 33% overall support pardoning these january 6 defendants. and many went into the voting booth holding two thoughts at twice. they really did not like trump's actions in the january 6 events and at the same time they really did think he would do a better job for them as president on their most salient issue which fermenting -- which for many of them was the economy. amna: this is the context in

which lawmakers step in to do their job. republicans have a trifecta. they have chosen their leader in the senate, senator john thune, and house speaker johnson. we know there has been some questions about how they will move forward with a very broad and aggressive policy agenda that they have, everything from border crackdown in the energy policy and tax cuts. mr. trump weighed in on what he would like to see with that. take a listen. >> i favor one bill. i also want to get everything passed. some people don't necessarily agree and i'm open to that also. my preference is one big beautiful bill. amna: do you see republicans moving forward with one big bill with all of these policy items? >> it is a good question. i think it is a matter of debate that is being debated among republicans. donald trump himself said he wanted one big beautiful bill.

in big beautiful bill is really hard to do when you have an extremely narrow margin. that is especially the case in the house of representatives where republicans have such a narrow margin. we saw that with the election of speaker johnson which was as narrow as you can get. and republicans have struggled with big budgetary bills that do a lot of things. this is a particular area of struggle for republicans for the last several years. they have had to rely on democratic votes alone. it is unclear if that will be on -- that just having republicans alone in power is going to be enough to get them passed all of these issues, which is why just doing immigration or just doing immigration and oil drilling together and saving the tax bill for later -- some senate republicans especially think that might be more plausible. amna: what do you make of that? >> get the w on the board as early as possible with

an immigration and energy policy bill which will be easier to get all republicans on board even in the house where they have such a narrow majority. the danger with that though is you get one thing done but you drag out the tax bill and other things further and further into the year and as we know, they have a lot of other difficult votes to take before we even get to the summer. we still have to fund the government in march and there will be a debt ceiling bill and there are things we don't know going to happen, that will take both energy and time and potentially the president's capital. the theory of one big bill is, there is so much in there that everybody gets something. there is a little something for everybody. one thing i will note, regardless of the size of the majorities, historically, presidents in their

first term have been able to get one big piece of legislation done on party line only votes. so donald trump got his tax bill in 2017. we will see if he will get it again in 2021. amna: we will see indeed. amy and tamera, always great to see you both. thank you so much. ♪ geoff: staff at the washington post are bracing for a wave of layoffs that are expected to be announced this week. it's the latest hit for the post coming just days after a longtime editorial cartoonist, anne tilnes, resigned in protest. her editor rejected her latest cartoon, which depicted post owner jeff bezos and other media leaders on bended knee before president-elect trump. the post said the cartoon was rejected because it had been repetitive of a recent column and another that was set to be published. her editor in a statement said

in part, not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a maligned force. to many observers though, it's the latest in a series of events that are raising questions about bezos and the leadership of the post, including a series of high profile staff departures and a wave of reader backlash. for more on that, we're joined now by kara swisher, multi-platform journalist, entrepreneur and author of "burn book: a tech love story." thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you for having me. geoff: and we should mention that you are putting together an investor group to buy the washington post. jeff bezos -- >> thinking about it. geoff: thinking about it. >> yes, i've been talking, i'm talking to a lot of people, 'cause i'm just disturbed by what's happening there. i'm sure other people are, too. the question is if he wants to sell it. he hasn't indicated any interest whatsoever, but i wanted to raise the idea, because i think it needs new leadership and new management. geoff: and right, i was going to say he's given no indication that he intends to sell. but what's the vision? why are you in the hunt? >> well, you know, i started off at the washington post in the news in the mailroom, excuse me,

that's where i started my career when i was at college at georgetown university. and so that was my first job, and i worked there for many years. i started covering the internet there, which is my big area. i went on to work at the wall street journal and the new york times, and did a whole bunch of different things, including a very famous tech conference. that was pretty good. and so i've been watching what's happening at the post for a long time, and i was quite heartened when the graham's family, which had owned it for so many years, sold it to jeff bezos. and in the initial years, he did a very good job. he got it for a very low amount of money, by the way, but he he -- he was doing a very good job. and it's just recently that's his business interests are not aligned with the post's, and everything he's done so far over the past, i don't know, year or so has been pretty questionable, i would say. not because necessarily it's malign. bringing in malign forces sort of takes it to a new level. i think he has business interests that are not aligned with the post, and some of his selections been bad, including pulling the endorsement of

kamala harris at the last minute, you know, there's always some excuse. he didn't see it. he didn't read it. it doesn't really matter. he's involving himself in ways that aren't working for the post, which is also in distress as a business at this moment. geoff: well, on that point, i mean, strong journalistic ethics prioritize independence and jeff bezos obviously isn't a journalist. he's a businessman and you can make the argument that he has a fiduciary responsibility to minimize any scrutiny or retaliation that could affect the post or his broader media empire. i mean, what do you say about that in -- argument? >> well, there's only one shareholder here, and that's jeff bezos, so he can do whatever he wants. so it's not like it's a public company and there's other things, but you know, other public companies have been very explicit that they're going to do fair and accountability coverage of the things, and i think some of the actions he's taken, including with anne, who's an amazing pulitzer prize winning cartoonist. i don't think jeff had anything to do with this decision. i think it was done by david shipley, but it's in this mood of not, not poking the bear, i think when the bear

being trump or jeff bezos, i don't know which one they're not trying to poke, but what the post was jeff bought it in 2013 and did a lot of stuff that improved it, but they never really figured out what to do post the first trump era, which gave a bump to a lot of people, and so you know, in many ways it's his fault of where it is, and now he's doing things that are making it worse, and i'm not sure why, right? i'm not sure what's happening with him, and i think he's again, he's been a very good owner until recently, i would say. and now he just doesn't -- i would like to know why he wants to own it. i what his plans are, the plans that they've outlined seem preposterous, really. i don't know what else to say. he's a very good business person, but a lot of these ideas are really an antithesis of what an independent newspaper should be, and i don't mean to stay in the past and the post has a storied history. i'm a journalist who's blown up a lot of things. i believe in changing and shifting, but you have to come up with something that preserves the integrity of the post, and at the same time makes

it into a pretty good business. geoff: are there lessons the post could learn from the new york times multimedia or from the rise of digital native outlets like axios or substack or semaphore, the list goes on. >> i don't mean to be rude, but i did the first one, which is called all things at the at the wall street, you know, we, walt and i, walt mossberg and i were the og of all this stuff. it's, it's funny when it's like, oh, this is new. i'm like, no, we did it a long time ago because we did see what was coming and the importance of digitization of media and how the consumer had changed really drastically, and we also supplemented by having a conference that was highly lucrative that could pay the bills too, because news is -- advertising is tougher. some people have done subscriptions really well, like the information does great journalism and does subscriptions, other things rely on advertising like we did at all things or sponsorship like we did at the code conferences. there's all kinds of things you could look at and the new york times is one way of doing it. they do everything. they cook

everything internally, right? but they did an important diversification. news is not the driver of the growth of the new york times right now. it's wordle, cooking, sports, it's all kinds of things, and that's important for a news organization to have multiple revenue streams around it. especially as people, especially young people, go off and get things from tiktok or or instagram or wherever they happen or youtube, for example, has become critically important in the tv watching space, and so the post hasn't really done anything. they don't have a podcast division to speak of and other companies have done a really good job at that, and it can be very lucrative. i can tell you some ideas that i can outline if i get a meeting with jeff. i met jeff before he was a billionaire when he first started amazon. he's a wonderful entrepreneur, and i think he has to understand that he may be where he is today is not where he was, and that he may not be the correct owner for this thing. so i just want to talk to you -- talk to him about it and

understand why he wants to own it if he continues to do these things that are causing a huge amount of people to leave, very huge amount of talent, and that's hard to get back. let me just say, i have different ideas of financial structures, the way you could do it, and i'm sure other people do. geoff: well, if you could redesign the current media ecosystem to better serve the public in this polarized, fractured and fast-paced era, what would you prioritize? especially since after this last election we learned to the degree to which legacy media has limited reach and limited influence. >> well, that's been happening for a long time. it's something i warned of in my book and many -- for years and years i wrote this column, i'm like everything that the thing i said over and over again is everything that can be digitized will be digitized, and it was, right? this was at the beginning of my career, and i think one of the things they have to recognize is where is the audience? the audience has taken control of the media, and it's not giving it back any time soon, so you go where they're going, you try to create things they want to

consume. it doesn't have to be light. there is a terrible word in media, make it snackable. i think that's the worst thing i've ever heard in my life, but make it interesting. i have a million ideas of what you can do and how you could structure it so it's more protected, but being at the at the mercy and kindness of billionaires? good luck with that. i'm sorry. maybe a lot of billionaires, so none of them have control, but a single billionaire, millionaire, -- a single billionaire? i don't care how you slice it, and i don't care how nice that billionaire is. it's never going to end well. it just isn't. >> kara swisher, thanks for joining us. we deeply appreciate it. >> thank you. thank you. ♪ amna: president biden will meet privately this evening in new orleans with the families of the fourteen people who were killed in the terror attack there on new year's day. before that, the president and the first lady stopped on bourbon street, laid down flowers at a makeshift shrine for the victims and held a moment of silence.

the president will also attend a prayer vigil and memorial service. before we go tonight, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the victims, the lives they led and the legacies they leave behind. stephanie sy has our remembrance. stephanie: nicole perez was a mother who was teaching her five year old son how to read. she'd just been promoted to manager at the local deli where the owner told reporters, "she was a good mom who learned quickly. she wanted to be successful." perez was 27. that was also the age of martin "tiger" bech, a former wide receiver for princeton university who was in louisiana on a hunting and fishing trip. before he passed, his brother, jack, was able to say goodbye on facetime. >> if he could have lived, he would have. he fought so hard. like i said, he's always been a fighter. you know, he was always the little guy and he always had to fight and that's what he did until the last breath he took. stephanie: terrence kennedy, 63,

was a born and raised new orleanian. his sister told reporters he was a kind man with a big heart who loved watching football, especially the pittsburgh steelers. drew dauphin graduated from auburn university in 2023, and according to his linkedin page, worked at honda motor company. in a statement, auburn university president christopher roberts said of the 26 year old alum, "words cannot convey the sorrow the auburn family feels for drew's family." kareem badawi had just finished his first semester at the university of alabama. his father told reporters his son "spent all his life loving people and socializing with friends." he was only 18. also 18, nikyra dedeaux had her whole life ahead of her. according to her great aunt, she dreamed of becoming a nurse, like her mother who hadn't wanted her to go to new orleans. dedeaux was from mississippi.

elliot wilkinson was 40 years old and living on the streets at the time of his death. his older brother, cecil, told reporters elliott had a history of mental illness. he said on facebook, "you will be truly missed. i know life was hard for you at times." reggie hunter headed to bourbon street straight after work. his cousin said he loved fashion and always matched. the 37 year old was a father of two. 21 year old hubert gauthreaux was from a nearby town, and was a huge chicago white sox fan. in a facebook post, his sister, brooke, said, "you deserved so much better than this. i don't know how i'm supposed to go on without you." edward pettifer was from london and had ties to the british royal family. his stepmother was prince william and prince harry's nanny. in a statement, the elder prince said, "catherine and i have been shocked and saddened by the

tragic death of ed pettifer." he was 31. latasha polk, 47, lived in new orleans. the nursing assistant had a 14 year old son. her aunt said, "she wouldn't want us to be sad. but at the same time, we can't help but be selfish and want her back." 25 year old matthew tenedorio was a beloved son, brother, uncle and friend who worked at the superdome as an audiovisual technician. his father, louis, urged him not to go out on new years. >> i think as time goes by i'll see something that reminds me of i will break down. i know that is going to happen probably for the rest of my life. stephanie: also 25, billy dimaio of holmdel, new jersey, was known as a standout lacrosse player with "an infectious laugh". in a statement, his family wrote, "his energetic

personality inspired everyone around him." 43 year old brandon taylor was the last victim struck by the truck according to his fiancee, heather, who spoke to reporters. taylor was described as a quiet christian, who liked to rap. heather said, "no one should ever have to die like that. he didn't deserve it." ♪ amna: our thoughts are with their families and their loved and that's the newshour for ones. tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett, thanks for joining us and have a good evening. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences.

a world of leisure and british style. all with cunard's white star service. ♪ >> the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound. org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is pbs news hour west

from the david and resumed starting at weta in washington and the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪