amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight. elon musk expands his influence in the trump administration, gutting parts of the government

while gaining access to sensitive federal payment systems. amna: the u.s. agency tasked with overseeing foreign aid is put on the chopping block with potential risks for national security. geoff: note and president trump threatens, then pauses tariffs on major u.s. trading partners. how the back and forth could affect american consumers. >> the tariff is a very regressive tax. it hits lower income households more than higher income households. announcer: major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise line's journey, along the legendary mississippi river commission travelers explore civil war battlefields and historic riverside towns. a board our fleet of american

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♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the news hour. tonight, major tariffs against mexico and canada have been put on hold for one month, but others against china are set to go into effect tomorrow. amna: this all comes as president donald trump pushes new boundaries taking steps to shutter an entire government agency, and giving his close adviser, elon musk, unprecedented leeway to cut costs in washington, and beyond. our report tonight from laura barron lopez. laura: tonight, major tariffs

against mexico and canada are on pause, just hours before they were set to go into effect at the stroke of midnight tonight. president trump, and mexican president claudia sheinbaum, after speaking by phone today, agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period. mexico pledging to put 10,000 of its troops along the u.s. southern border to help combat the flow of drugs. and prime minister justin trudeau says the same delay will be given to canada. but other tariffs are not off the table. a 10% tariff will remain on china one of the united states' , largest trading partners. as punishment, the white house says, the chinese made fentanyl flowing into the country. >> this is retaliatory. this is retaliatory to a certain extent. we have to stop people from pouring in and we have to stop fentanyl and that includes china. fentanyl has killed this year, at least 200,000 people. it's pouring in from china through mexico and canada. and they've got to stop it.

laura: the now-delayed tariffs on everything from produce in the grocery aisle, to lumber and building materials, to automobiles and electronics. the president admitted they would cost americans. >> we may have short term, a little pain and people understand that but long-term the united states has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world. laura: the move follows backlash. canada threatened a 25% tariff this weekend on billions in u.s. goods. prime minister trudeau: if president trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the united states, the better path is to partner with canada, not to punish us. laura: meanwhile, the trump administration is also sending shockwaves across its own federal government. this morning, staff at the u.s. agency for international development or usaid, were told to work from home today because the agency's headquarters was closed. its website was also shut down,

as multiple usaid officials have been placed on administrative leave. >> i love the concept, but they turned out to be radical left lunatics. reporter: the white house and billionaire elon musk have not provided evidence backing up claims of widespread corruption at usaid. in a midnight conversation on his platform, x, musk said the president wants the agency shut down altogether. >> you've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. it's beyond repair. he agreed that we should shut it down. laura: this comes as elon musk's task force, known as the department of government efficiency, has also gained unprecedented access to sensitive internal government systems, including a treasury department payment system which holds private information on millions of americans, and classified spaces in usaid. musk' team has also accessed systems at the general services administration and personnel records for federal employees through the office of personnel management essentially known as, , the government's hr.

>> he's got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him, and it's only if we agree with him. laura: thousands of other government web pages have also been taken down since friday afternoon, according to an analysis by the new york times, all in order to satisfy president trump's executive orders targeting diversity initiatives and gender ideology. and, a shakeup at the fbi. the acting fbi director was ordered by the acting attorney general to remove a number of senior fbi executives, and to hand over the names of any fbi employee who worked on january 6th cases. all part of the unprecedented purge of anyone considered to be an enemy or disloyal to the president. amna: the department of government efficiency, exactly what is it and how much access do musk and his team have? laura: that's the million-dollar

question. is it a federal advisory committee? how many people work for it? is it being run by newly appointed government officials? have there been security checks? i have not gotten any answers on that. the white house claims that elon musk is a federal employee and is abiding by all applicable laws but did not answer if elon musk has gone through necessary security clearances. as far as the scope of this, it is expensive. in addition to access to the treasury payments system that we reported, we obtained an email sent to the small business administration employees stating that the agency needed to provide "access to all sba systems" and a member of the team who reportedly recently graduated from high school and worked for a musk tech company

previously. in a call with agency staff, he said he needed access to the hr system and payment systems. amna: we know that doge and the trump administration are already facing loss it. laura: there's one from the state democracy defenders fund and other groups aimed at nailing down exactly what is doge and is it in violation of the federal committee act that requires transparency? there's another lawsuit brought by federal employees against office of personnel management, which we know that doge and musk got access to. this allows the agency to send emails to all civilian federal agencies at once which are resources and other outlets reported was a specific project of doge and musk. i spoke to the executive director of the national security counselors and he's a lawyer bringing that lawsuit and he had this to say. >> they have decided that the

things that worked for them there are a good idea to implement in the federal government. the problem is that the federal government or any government for that matter does not function like a business and it literally cannot function like a business. laura: moments ago another lawsuit, the afl-cio and advocacy groups sued the treasury department forgiving elon musk and doge access to the federal payments system. amna: when you talk to legal experts, what are they telling you about the legality of all of this? laura: whether elon musk is a special government employee or a full-time federal government employee, the conflict of interest statute applies to him and that's according to legal experts i spoke to including richard paynter, who served as white house ethics lawyer to george w. bush.

>> alize cornet for a federal officer to participate in a government matter that has a direct predictable effect on their own financial holdings. the president and vice president are exempt from that statute, but no one else is. and so if elon musk is a federal officer, he will have to divest, but he simply cannot start bossing around the agencies, telling people in the agencies what to do. laura: so musk has two options according to richard paynter and others i spoke to. he can sell off his interest in holding, his businesses, or he can recuse himself from government matters that can affect his businesses, so that means potentially anything involving cryptocurrency, electric vehicles, spacex, or the social media company x. today president trump said that musk is tasked with shrinking the government and if there's a conflict or a problem, he will make sure musk and doge don't go near it, but there's a pattern that suggests there's little to

no guard rails around elon musk and doge. that's what we are hearing from a number of sources across the federal government. musk could be vulnerable to lawsuits even five years from your geoff: reporting. fore let's bring and correspond into. for more on the mass layoffs in the u.s. foreign aid agency and possible effects here and abroad. break out precisely what's happening in the agency and what it means. lisa: this agency which is an independent agency as i speak to you now, is essentially shut down. today the administration announced secretary of state marco rubio is the acting administrator of usaid and they told laura that pete morocco, a known trump ally, will be appointed essentially to oversee usaid as a deputy there. programs around the world right now are frozen. workers are cut off from both their staff and their own email.

some workers have been fired. i'm in touch with dozens around the world who are communicating through encrypted groups. this agency website conveys the clarity and state of things. if you take a look, this is what comes up when you look at usaid.gov. nothing. i want to point out there's been no notice to staff before this happened. today, laura received from the white house indication that it has notified congress that it is considering a reorganization but that's a week after these layoffs are in place. let's take a look at what this means. this is an agency with 13,000 or more staff. at least 1000 contractors, the white house puts that number at a little less. there are estimates for 3000 u.s. layoffs so far, including the contracting agencies. i want to talk about usaid and what they do. they affect millions annually around the world in key areas of u.s. interest like africa and

asia. these programs when they were founded in the 1960's, the wic program pivotal in asia and india giving us a sphere of influence there. now this is a program that counters train around the world. it's a small agency but this is an idea of u.s. soft power. geoff: what is the knockoff effect of that? lisa: this is part of the problem in the story. it's not yet known because staffers have been disconnected from the programs. what i was able to piece together, we know malaria vaccines in africa and those programs have stopped. there is concern in africa as an ebola art -- outbreak is beginning. the international system to monitor famine, let's look at that website. also down. those trying to monitor famine around the world cannot access it. fighting hunger, a major part of

what usaid does. i spoke to one worker to confirm some hiv-aids drugs are not being given out and some workers are cut off in dangerous places like mogadishu. geoff: usaid, does donald trump have the authority to do this? lisa: to be honest, this is an independent agency first founded by president kennedy under executive order, but then congress put this into code. this will be a legal battle. it is not clear what democrats will do long term. they argue this is a constitutional crisis. trump and musk say the u.s.'s overspending but that's really not the debate. they also say it's an agency in need of reform, but that's also not what they are doing here. i spoke to an expert who said disruption is one thing and we are open to reform, but this feels like destruction. geoff: thank you as always. amna: to discuss more about the

fallout over usaid's future, i spoke earlier with democratic senator chris coons of delaware, who serves on both the senate foreign relations and judiciary committees. welcome back. thank you for joining us. sen. coons: thank you, great to be with you. amna: we saw it just a few days ago for elon musk to essentially take control of usaid. have security people in his way on leave, and now threatening to shut down the agency. if this is a legal, then what can be done about it? sen. coons: i think a legal challenge to exactly how, why and when this happened could be coming in the coming days. a group of us are working to press the administration, secretary rubio, and our colleagues to recognize the incredible and important work around the world that makes us more safe, that keeps americans

safe, secure and prosperous and that this work needs to continue. whether it's countering human trafficking in mexico, preserving wild spaces in mozambique that pushed back on hunger and extremism, intercepting viruses like ebola in uganda before they get to the united states or before they break out and cause harm throughout the region. the men and women of usaid and the nonprofits from around our country who serve around the world in response to humanitarian disasters and crises, and who help promote democracy, security and stability do great and valuable work, work that needs to continue. i will keep fighting to support and sustain valuable work. amna: i should point out we reached out to every republican member of the senate foreign relations committee. we got either a no org no response all day from nearly all 12. only senator curtis sent a short statement recently saying he is open to retooling usaid if it

helps us better use limited dollars. i assume when you say you are working with colleagues, that means republican colleagues. do they share your concerns about funding and are they concerned about just ceding congressional authority to elon musk and the president? sen. coons: there are three issues here. the first when i think should be shared by every member of congress. we have a fundamental constitutional role, the power of the purse. the funding that has been shut down abruptly is funding that was already appropriated by congress and signed into law by the former president and was already being spent by nonprofit around the world. that should unite congress in saying you can do this and cut off funding abruptly. the second thing, referencing senator curtis, is whether the things that usaid does around the world helps make a safer, stronger, and more secure. i heard a quote from secretary rubio in el salvador supporting

that concept. that with some reforms, a majority of what he's done today and promoting security and stability and promoting local public health is worth continuing. then there's others were saying it should all be shut down. i think that creates a huge opening for china and other adversaries of ours around the world. in the united states has been present in 100 countries for decades, since president kennedy created this and i -- agency doing good work and helping promote democracy, deliberating -- delivering stability. that opening will be filled by china and by extremists and terrorists. we should not give them that opportunity. amna: both of those messages are coming from the same administration though. secretary rubio who is no acting administrator of usaid, saying a review is underway. elon musk's sayings shut it down. what will happen next? sen. coons: this goes to the

question of what role does elon musk have in this administration? he's not elected. he doesn't run an official agency. yet his role in this fight and taking on other federal agencies and roles is central. so as donald trump credits -- president. his secretary rubio secretary or is elon musk? that's going to play out in the next couple of days. amna: you served on the judiciary committee. last week you questioned cash patel and his confirmation hearing to leave the fbi. we also saw the white house multiple top officials and push out those who worked on january 6 and mar-a-lago investigations. our team has heard widespread concerns about mass firings at the fbi. are you hearing similar concerns and how does this impact your vote to confirm or not confirm? all sen. coons: of this confirms my anxiety about kash patel and

his alarming statements before being nominated suggesting he will use the resources of the fbi to go after those who are political opponents of the president, and that there will be retribution against career agents who are simply following lawful orders to carry out investigations. the investigations into those who assaulted police officers on january 6 were completely appropriate for fbi agents to participate in and carry out. some have been called in and disciplined and even fired for just doing their jobs without any connection to a political agenda by those fbi agents is truly chilling. i will vote against kash patel for fbi director. amna: democratic senator chris coons of delaware joining us tonight. thank you for your time. sen. coons: thank you.

geoff: the u.s., canada and mexico all agreed to delay the start of president trump's tariffs and hold off at least for now on the possibility of a trade war among allies. the delay is only for a few weeks and as of now there will be new tariffs taking effect tomorrow. 10% on goods from china already on top of materials dating back to president trump's first term. amna: president trump also called the new tariffs and opening salvo and spoke about his plans to issue new punitive tariffs against another ally, the european union. these threats and the prospects of a trade war lead to a number of questions about how tariffs have been used in the past and what effect they will have and potential impacts now. our economics correspondent takes a look. reporter: tariffs. taxes on imports collected in the u.s. at 328 ports across the

country. here's a look at some of the reasons president trump gives to hide them. -- height of. >> instead of taxing our citizens, we will tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. reporter: reason one, to raise money from foreigners instead of taxing americans. president trump insists tariffs were once the great revenue source for the united states and it's true. >> until the civil war tariffs raised 90% of the revenue for the government, but the government was very small so there was not much to fund except for the debt on expenditures. reporter: today government spending is almost one quarter of gdp. how much do tariffs bring in? only >> about 2%. it has been swamped by corporate taxes, social security taxes and that sort.

reporter: but the point is to replace those taxes so how much more money can hire tariffs raised? >> if you look at a typical year there's over $4 trillion and almost 3 trillion is a combination of individual income tax and corporate income tax. the maximum we could get out of tariffs would be in the neighborhood of $800 billion so that will not come anywhere near what you need to even replace the individual income tax let alone the corporate payroll tax. reporter: a second reason, tariffs to protect american industry from foreign competition, like the future 25th president of the united states william committee. >> he ushered through legislation that became known as the mckinley tariffs passed in 1890 and had revenue effects, designed to protect domestic industries from foreign

competition. he is representing the state of ohio and was interested in helping out the steel industry in his district. reporter: president trump has promised to help out various industries exciting mckinley. >> president mckinley made our country very rich through tariffs and talent. reporter: however, when mckinley became president in 1897 -- >> it was not a massive boom. it was a mini depression that lasted for several years. as president, mckinley said if we could export manufactured goods to the world, we could pull out of this recession and he changed it. he said the age of exclusion has passed, commercial wars were not productive. so his more outward as a debt that she was a much more outward oriented president to them a member of congress. reporter: plus, there are counterterrorist with should both mexico and canada threatened before today. >> canada will be responding to the u.s. trade action with 25

percent tariffs against $155 billion worth of american goods such as american beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. it will include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics along with much much more. reporter: which would make our goods more expensive and thus hurt our exports. that raises the question, who pays for tariffs anyway? according to research on the last trump tariffs -- >> what we found in the 2018 is when the u.s. imposed tariffs on predominately chinese goods, the u.s. economy and u.s. importers bore the full incidence of those, and some of those costs would then trickle down and come back to consumers.

reporter: prices went up less than half a percent, but the first trump tariffs were just 15% on about 15% of u.s. imports, not much, and the more and higher the tariffs, the more expensive for importers and consumers. moreover, they don't hit everyone equally. >> the tariff is a very regressive tax. it's a lower income households more than higher income. if you are attempting to cut the income tax with a tariff, you would go from a fairly progressive tax system to a regressive tax system. reporter: muscling other countries may be working as columbia's about-face on accepting deportees suggests, when trump threatened tariffs on columbia. as to protecting american manufacturing -- >> it's a double-edged sword we heard some industries and help others. we see trade-offs. reporter: what impact will the new tariffs actually have? we will soon find out. geoff: and for additional

perspective we are doing tonight by mary lovely -- a senior fellow at the non-partisan peterson institute for international economics. thank you for coming in. we've got this 30 day pause on tariffs for canada and mexico. the 10% goods for china still on the table for tomorrow. how much of this is actually about addressing a trade imbalance? i raised the question because donald trump negotiated a new trade deal with canada and mexico in his first term. is there an actual problem that these tariffs aim to solve? >> the president has identified two problems at the border. migration and the flow of fentanyl. he has on occasion talked about the trade deficit we have with trading partners but it's hard to know exactly what he places on these various factors. for today's announcement, it looks like it was on border issues. geoff: when he talks about

canada, he often complains about the trade imbalance which has existed for decades. canada sells more goods answer to the u.s. than it buys from us. on that point, does that justify tariffs? >> no. there's no reason we should have balance bilaterally. there's no reason for example to the grocery stores should buy as much from me as i buy from it. there's no reason why canada, which is rich in natural resources, should not sell toys and then our countries use those to produce things to sell to the rest of the world. there's no reason, no welfare implication of us having a trade deficit with canada or any other country for that matter. geoff: president trump has acknowledged that if these tariffs take effect, it will hurt american consumers at least in the short term. he said it's a little bit of pain but people understand that.

obviously, some which depends on when, if or how the tariffs are implemented. but how much pain are we talking about? >> we have run the numbers on the latest round of terrorist th tariff threats, and for the average household it would be about $1200 per year. you can think about $100 a month. of course, that number would rise if president trump goes ahead with other threats he has made to raise tariffs on the european union for example. geoff: i imagine china sees a lot of upside in all of this. what is the overall effect of other countries seeing the u.s. as an unreliable or mercurial trade partner? >> while we may be celebrating the fact that we have marginally more resources spent on the border in these policies are addressing important problems, that americans care a lot about, there is this long-term cost to

doing this. that is that the u.s. signaled that the trade agreement it has signed under the first trump administration wasn't really worth the paper it was written on. so that's a problem. it is important in terms of the context of building economic resilience. and de-risking our supply chains including reducing our dependence on china. to do that, we have to create pathways for companies who actually do the creation of supply chains and pathways to have competent, if they invest in a particular country and they want and then face new tariffs for trying to come into the u.s. some people say why not just make everything in the u.s.? it is clear we can't, we have to have room to make experts for things we are good at making an import other things from other countries used in those products. so it's not really the answer.

it's also important to recognize doing so will make us poorer, not richer. many of the things we import are labor-intensive and would be prohibitively expensive for workers in the u.s. trying to have a living wage. geoff: how dangerous is this atmosphere of confusion and chaos, especially if we get locked in the cycle of threat followed by a delay or block back? >> even if we are caught in a cycle, the damage is profound. companies are making long-term bets on where to place supply chains and where to do production. the rest of the world is not sitting still. it is for agreements that are working around the u.s. china is sitting out there and providing funds for infrastructure and other development. it has changed its tune in response.

it is welcoming countries who sell into its market and we have seen over the last 10 years some of our key allies and friends increasing integration with china. i think this really strikes a blow at our long-term plans to increase the diversity of where we sell and where we buy and enhance economic resilience in the u.s. geoff: thank you for sharing your expertise with us. we appreciate it. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with news hour west. here are the latest headlines. crews -- video from the scene showed a crane lifting pieces of the regional american airlines plane out of the water.

officials say they removed parts of the engine, fuselage and wing. crews also found additional human remains today. 55 of the 67 people killed have been identified. a lawsuit was filed today alleging for the first time that people died because of the 2023 train derailment in east palestine, ohio. the filing contains the first seven wrongful death claims against norfolk southern railroad. it also alleges the railroad and contractors botched the cleanup of the toxic crash and that federal officials failed to warn people about lingering health risks. it comes as vice president jd vance visited the site today on the second anniversary of the disaster. vance said the trump administration would prioritize the community's recovery, even as the administration cuts federal agencies. >> you do now have a government that cares about you that's going to work on these problems. president trump's desire to bring some efficiency back to the federal government.

that's not going to be bad for the people of east palestine. it's actually going to ensure that the resource we spend on health actually go to people on the ground rather than bureaucrats. stephanie: u.s. secretary of state marco rubio said today he welcomes panama's decision to let its participation in china's global infrastructure plan expire. rubio said any move by panama to distance itself from china's belt and rode -- and road initiative is a great step forward for u.s.-panama relations. speaking from el salvador -- the next stop on rubio's trip through the region -- he addressed china's role in the flow of trade through the panama canal. >> when we turned over the canal, we turned it over to panama. we didn't turn it over to china. so you got there. and the chinese control both entries to the port. we don't want to have a hostile and negative relationship with panama. i don't believe we do but we had a frank and respectful conversation, and i hope it'll yield fruits. stephanie: the trump

administration is ending deportation protections for nearly 350,000 venezuelans living in the u.s. the order from homeland security secretary kristi noem affects more than half of the venezuelans covered by temporary protected status, or tps. that means they could lose their work permits or be deported starting in april. today's order signaled that the administration believes conditions in venezuela no longer merit such protections against deportation. republican critics of tps say it's been used to allow migrants to stay much longer than intended. the official termination notice will be published wednesday, and go into effect 60 days after that. the texas national guard now has full authority to investigate, arrest, and detain migrants at the southern border. the powers, after governor greg abbott reached a path with u.s. customs and border protection. multiple immigration advocates including the aclu sued the trump administration in federal court today over its ban on

asylum access at the southern border. it marks the first legal challenge to the president's executive actions were met -- related to immigration. in the, rwandan backed m-23 rebels have declared a unilateral cease-fire, starting tomorrow. in a statement, a spokesperson said the group has no intention of claiming more territory in the region. the announcement comes as morgues in the eastern city of goma are overcrowded with bodies -- forcing health workers to bury the dead in mass graves. the u.n.'s health agency said at least 900 people died in last week's fighting. the senate confirmed chris wright as energy secretary this evening in a 59-30 eight vote. the fracking firm executive will be tasked with pursuing the trump administration's plan to boost fossil fuel production. environmental groups opposed the confirmation, saying he downplayed the risks of global warming. at last nights grammy awards,

beyonce took home the top prize after four prior efforts came up short. beyonce: i just feel very full and very honored. it's been many, many years. stephanie: the most decorated artist in grammy's history secured her first album of the year award for "cowboy carter" -- her country music album. she's the first black woman to win the award since lauryn hill 26 years ago. rapper kendrick lamar swept both the record and song of the year categories, for his track “not like us.” and chappell roan won for best new artist in what was a competitive field. still to come on the news hour, tamara keith and amy welter break down the latest political headlines. and costume designer paul tazewell discusses his academy award-nominated work on the musical “wicked.” announcer: this is the pbs news hour from the david and rubenstein stay duo at weta in

washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: from the potential impact of trade tariffs to the confirmation votes for president trump's cabinet, let's look at the political stakes with amy walter of the cook political report, and tamara keith of npr. great to see you. we saw over the weekend confusion at usaid as elon musk essentially took over the agency and threatened to shut it down, concerns about the number of firings at the fbi and doj and markets in study after confusion about whether or not terrace will go into place. is this what trump voters voted for? >> i think it depends on which trump supporters you're talking about. some people voted because they

were concerned about the price of eggs and everything else. were frustrated with president biden refusing to step aside and then having vice president harris come in in a way that made it seem rate. there are people upset about what was happening in gaza. and then there were people who really just wanted to blow up the boxes, felt like government wasn't working for them and they are looking at this and saying, look at that. they are shaking things up. this is a hostile takeover of the government and that's what some share of trump's voters signed up for. what i will say is that when a president takes office, they are never more popular and powerful than they are in the first couple weeks. as they continue to do more things, people who voted for them get upset about it. so their popularity almost inevitably declines. amna: as we have spoken about a

number of times in the last couple years, the economy was a driving issue, why people back to president trump. when you talk about the potential for tariffs to go into place, here's what president trump had to say when he posted online. he said will there be some pain? yes, may be. he went on to say that it will be worth the price. we know the prices for fruits and vegetables, alcohol, lumber and electronics could go up. how much will president trump supporters be willing to stomach on that front? >> i think tamra made a good point about the frustration with the status quo, and a big reason trump not only was successful in the election but why he starts off in decent shape in terms of his overall approval rating is that people are ready to see the status quo disrupted and they see the democratic party as

avatars for the status quo. at the same time, they don't want to see their own lives necessarily disrupted. what has been really interesting to watch, donald trump has come in and quickly put a lot of things in place that are disruptive. whether it's on the dei front or immigration, talking about ending birthright citizenship, those things. on the issues that really could impact the day-to-day lives of americans, one was shutting down government funding, putting a pause or freeze on government funding which was quickly rolled back, or this issue of tariffs which was basically a 24 hour event. the impact of it will not be felt, at least at this point, by regular americans. you have to wonder at some point , either the tariffs go into

place and people do feel it, or that this now becomes something that we don't hear from for a while or it gets solved and instead that the president spends more of his time on the issues that will impact some people but don't have the broad impact on the economy. amna: we know his selections to join the cabinet continue to move through preconfirmation processes. we've seen among the more tenuous nominees is tulsi gabbard to occupy the top intelligence post. we saw the republicans expressed concerns about her in the confirmation hearings. today senator collins said she will vote to confirm. we know that senate intelligence committee bow is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. gabbard cannot afford to lose a single boat. what do you see happening? >> it looks like she's in an increasingly good position. she looks to be in a stronger position than she did during her

hearing which did not go particularly well. she was frequently asked whether edward snowden was a traitor and she could not answer that or would not answer that question directly. the reality is that we haven't seen a lot of senators willing to put their necks out. republican senators willing to put their necks out and go up against trump on his nominees. they are repeatedly saying he wants these people and we will give them to him. we should remember he also threatened to appoint them through recess appointments to force them in if the senate did not go along with it. i don't know where we will see the pushback. we might see it with rfk junior, we might not. we have not at this point seen a lot of pushback for instance on the administration's access to college funding.

-- pause funding. we have not seen house members stand up to say we are the article one branch of the government and have the power of the purse. amna: we should point out three senators voted against pete hegseth. how do you look at this issue? >> including susan collins being one of those votes against. i look at it similarly which is at this point, republicans are treating the president as somebody who is not just the leader of the party but one who has a mandate that is even stronger than their own individual mandates from their voters. in many cases you have republican senators and members of the house who got fewer votes than donald trump did in their district. they are giving him a lot of runway. where it really hits the road

comes down to the actual consequences. and you started to hear a little bit of it today even among some of trump's strongest supporters in congress questioning just what kinds of damage these tariffs can do to people in their communities and the industries in their communities. for now they have learned it is not worth it to get out over their skis, wait a little bit, and see what the impact is, and giving him that runway to do what we talked about at the beginning. do the disrupting and the moving of all these different programs in the way that they see voters endorsing. amna: in the 30 seconds or so, we know the dems have their new dnc chair in ken martin. what do you take away from his election? >> it didn't really have a whole

lot of intensity or ideology around it. i do think democrats are still trying to find their way. this becomes really important. as i said earlier, the question of the consequences on average americans, that's what democrats are counting on as helping them find some success and find their footing, find their way going forward. until that happens, the goal of the dnc chair right now is simply raising money and keeping the infrastructure, keeping the employees and all the folks who do the work on the ground, engaged and focused. amna: amy walter, tamara keith, always great to see you. geoff: the movie version of the hit musical wicked sword at the box office this winter it and

among 10 nominations, one is for costume designer paul tazewell. senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown starts our coverage of oscar nominees with this report as part of our arts and culture series, canvas. reporter: it's a visually spectacular world. intended to feel both familiar and fresh. >> the wicked witch of the west is dead. reporter: the costume designer paul tazewell, wicked is an enormous canvas of characters and colors, materials in motion. and it is the biggest thing he's ever been involved in. >> it's a blast, and it is my life. it is the way that i communicate. as a painter would. it is my language. and it is my means of being creative.

reporter: we met at steiner studios, a film production complex in brooklyn, new york. he told us that for all the huge scale, the key is still through his designs and working with director john hsu, and actors, cynthia a rebo as elphaba, and ariana grande as glinda, not only their characters but their inner and emotional life. >> my focus is not just for the characters are and how they dress themselves, how to create a world that makes sense in itself and provides a magical environment for the story to exist. so i'm stepping into their shoes. if i'm working adjacent to -- reporter: actually they are stepping into your shoes. [laughter] >> both. reporter: for cultural history, these are very big shoes to fill. beginning with the books in the early 1900s by l frank bomb.

the classic 1939 film that has taken generations over the rainbow. >> seems like we are going to have to find our own yellow brick road. reporter: and the wiz, the 1973 television and film experience through the black experience. it turns out we didn't really know the wicked witch or elphaba after all. after an amazingly successful broadway musical running 21 years and counting. and now the new film. >> i acknowledge all of those as i'm designing it, but with the intent of creating new images, new icons, new ways of seeing who these characters are, and a new way of telling the story. and i delight in that. reporter: the wiz was the first show paul tazewell designed and

also acted in it as a high school student in akron, ohio where his mother taught him to sew. he went on to a hugely successful career in theater design notably, for hamilton in which he won a tony. most recently, with another tony nomination. he won a television me for nbc's 2015 the wiz live, and the first oscar nomination for steven spielberg's 2021 film version of west side story. so you are grabbing images, on the internet, whatever? >> that this really speak to me. they could be abstract or random, but collectively they start to create a world. reporter: for we could paul tazewell has created icons like the witch hat and made it his own. he created a mashup of old and

new fashions. look to the art of one of history's greatest graphic artists, mc escher, and incorporated patterns in nature, including the swirl of the tornado or twist so indelible in the 1939 film. he showed me an early plastic 3d model of a crystal slipper made for one of the characters. the swirl pattern appearing throughout. it's a detail that required weeks for the team to experiment with, design and make. i as the viewer, seeing the film, i would not know all that. >> and my hope is that, that was for all of the details, that it was immersive. do you believe it so much that you are drawn into this world. there's a suspension of disbelief. reporter: he says he's always bringing his own personal connections to the story and

characters he's working on. hey brought up the example of el phaba, an outsider in munchkin land, a different color of the rest, uncertain of her place and in relation to others. >> what i bring is my own experience and how i walk through life. i have a direct emotional relationship to that, being a black man walking through life in america. so decisions around how she emotionally presents herself, what her intention is, i have to build some kind of connection in order to have an honest take on what a character might wear. reporter: there's also another kind of history at stake in his oscar nomination. in 2019, ruth carter became the first black costume designer to win an oscar for her work in

black panther. paul tazewell would be the first black man to win. >> the number of people of color i experienced coming out in this business, there were very few. which is why it is so important for me to be a face that is visible and out there for other people to see me doing it. reporter:reporter: he's also seeking to make a case for the role of the costume designer more broadly, something he says is not well understood and has implications for such things as pay equity in the industry. >> what has become more of a priority is to be expansive in a way that is not only identified as a costume designer, but as a creative artist. i've tried to turn up the volume on indeed what it is that we do and the power that we have as costume designers to create character.

our contribution is huge towards that. reporter: while he vies for an oscar, one of 10 nominations overall for wicked on march 2. i'm jeffrey brown in brooklyn, new york. geoff: paul tazewell is paying it forward, establishing a scholarship at his alma mater for design students. amna: amazing work and we wish him well at the oscars that's . the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. announcer: major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by -- >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations. and immersive experiences. the world of leisure and british style. all with cunard's white star service.

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