♪ >> good evening. >> i'm geoff bennett on the news hour tonight. >> we are draining the swamp. it is very simple in the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. >> we fact-check president trump's address to congress where he taught of the actions

he's taken during his first few weeks in office. >> v.a. secretary doug collins on the cuts to his department and the larger federal workforce that are sparking concerns among veterans. >> u.s. officials say they suspended intelligence sharing with ukraine, a potential blow for the countr's ability to fend off russian attacks. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by -- >> a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. >> in 1995, two friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible to all. with no long-term contracts,

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by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> welcome to the "news hour." should is taking stock today after president donald trump's marathon address to congress last night. it was a speech reminiscent of one of his campaign rallies, full of applause lines for republicans and his conservative maga base. >> but within minutes democratic protests interrupted the night, with some members holding up signs, others walking out and one removed from the chamber after disrupting the speech. lisa desjardins was in the room and has this report. >> to my fellow citizens, america is back. >> president trump with a fiery address to congress. he waited five years to give. >> [chanting usa] >> for him and republicans,

victory lap and a measuring of his first i first weeks in office. >> it has enough -- been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and was successful era in the history of our country. >> the longest speech ever given, clocking in at one hour and 40 minutes. >> we have accomplished more and 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started. >> the speech was also unprecedented for its level of protest from democrats. >> get out! >> representative al green of texas stood and shouted at the president critical of potential medicaid cuts. he refused to leave and unprecedented-- >> the chair directs the sergeant at arms to restore order. remove this gentleman from the chamber. >> he was forced to exit the

chamber. other democrats found silent forms of protest holding up a sea of signs calling at the president's falsehoods but much of mr. trump's speech was an unapologetic list of accomplishments. >> we've ended the tierney of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. and our country will be woke no longer. >> with emotional moments acknowledging the family of lincoln riley, the family of a woman killed by an undocumented immigrant. >> america will never ever forget lincoln riley. >> and honoring a 13-year-old battling cancer. with dreams of becoming law enforcement. >> i am asking our new secret

service director sean curran to officially make you an agent of the united states secret service. >> and an announcement, the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind the bombing that killed 13u.s. service members during the 2021 afghanistan withdrawal. the suspect was due in federal court today also on foreign policy. >> i appreciate that he sensed this letter, just got a little while ago. >> trump said that volodymyr zelenskyy wrote he's ready to sign a minerals deal with the u.s. and to negotiate for peace. as for here at home. >> doge, perhaps you have heard of it, perhaps. >> trump a plot of the sweeping cuts from the group known as the department of government efficiency. republicans loudly cheered for elon musk when trump said -- >> we are draining the swamp. it is very simple in the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.

>> democrats in the audience laughed as what they saw hypocrisy regarding the unelected musk and in their official response, michigan senator elissa slotkin was direct. >> while on the subject of elon musk, is there anyone in america with hit -- was comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds to use their own servers to poke through your text accounts and your health information and your bank accounts. want to cut waste, i will help you do it. but change does not need to be chaotic or make us less safe. >> in speech trump took on critics of another policy, tariffs, doubling down on the idea that america can take any pain they bring. >> there will be a little bit of disturbance but we are ok with that. it won't be much. >> today the white house announced a one month tariff exemption for automakers peer the tariffs in his first term helped some and sharply hurt

others who -- including farmers. the theme was echoed as trump spoke about immigration and mock previous thought. >> we must have legislation, to secure the border. but it turned out all we needed was a new president. >> today vice president j.d. vance took the administrations message to, eagle past texas -- eagle pass, texas, joined by -- >> the witness of the please stand. >> house republicans hammered the democratic mayors of new york, chicago, boston and denver over sanctuary cities and other immigration policies. >> we cannot let pro criminal, alien policies and sod sanctuary cities to endanger the safety of federal immigration. enforcement officers >> the mayors pushed back. >> sensationalizing tragedy in the name of political expediency

is not governing. it is grandstanding. >> we have folks in denver paying taxes. there is no one that is seeking to come to denver. what people are looking for is opportunity and hope. >> pass comprehensive immigration law that will make our jobs possible. >> in the white house today, a condemnation of democratics' protest. the night before. >> behavior of democrats last night was completely disgraceful. and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the american public. >> for from house democrats number two, katherine clark, a fiery retort to the idea that they should have clapped more. >> everything the american peoplep put their trust in them to do, it is a betrayal. it is a betrayal. so, let's not talk about decorum. >> the day after, like the night before, a glaring show of the american divide over its president. i'm lisa desjardins. >> and a fact-check on many of

the claims the president made last night, i am joined by our white house correspondent. so, let's start with some of the biggest claims of the night. what stood out to you in terms of the areas president trump focused on? >> this is not an exhaustive list, but these are some of the key misleading statements the president made starting with the fact that he said 21 million undocumented immigrants enter the united states under biden. it was under 11 million and many were at the expelled. $350 billion has been spent on supporting ukraine. it is just over $180 billion. that is according to the ukraine oversight inspector general. that includes money spent inside the u.s. on weapons manufacture. the president also said that fentanyl coming from canada is killing thousands. actually only 43 pounds of fat and all were seized in 24. --43 pounds came from canada.

.2% of the total amount and the president said that -- millions have been spent on making mice transgender. again, the idea that scientists are making mice transgender's fault for the kind of research experiments president trump and the white house were claiming to his basic scientific research. the studies were not for studying of gender affirming care works. that is a legal medical treatment that is endorsed by the medical associations. it is studying the effects of hormones on asthma and on whether gender affirming hormones increase breast-cancer risk. so if someone is getting gender affirming care, does it make an hiv vaccine less effective on that person? many diseases and conditions are impacted by a, person and there is no -- a person's hormones and there is no scenario will scientist will be experimenting on humans. they always start with rats and mice. so, ultimately these experiments

on mice that present was singling outcome help scientists understand the biological effects on humans and on the endocrine system. and they can also impact the wider u.s. population, not just transgender people. those scientific experimentss that were funded by nih, are not fraud. >> we heard from president trump and elon musk claiming millions of dead people had been receiving social security payment spirit we heard the president doubled down on that last night. what should we understand? >> the president spent a big chunk of his address repeating these false claims on social security. >> we are also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the social security program for our seniors, and 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over,

130,000 people according to the social security databases are aged over 160 years old. >> many of those claims have been spread online by elon musk to his more than 200 million followers but the reality is that 1% of social security administration payments are improper and they are made to living people. and there are americans in the system who were born in the 1920's. they are still in the social security administration system, but that does not mean that they are receiving payments. some think that the present's -- the president's own social security administrator -- it stops payments to payment over people over the age >> trump mu has claimed that musk s found hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud.

are they canceled -- are those canceled contracts all fraudulent? >> the white house has provided no evidence. one example being the amount of money that fema sent to shelter migrants in new york city. that money was congressionally approved. it was voted on by some republicans. the president has labeled that fraud. and so has elon musk. so, what they are essentially doing is they are calling on their wall of receipts, that doge has where they're showing the contracts they say they have canceled, they are calling a lot of those fraud even though they have not provide the evidence. and some of that while the receipts have map errors in duplicate contracts and contracts that had no savings and they admit it on that wall. essentially what is happening is that the president and his allies are calling many of these contracts fraud simply because they disagree with the programs that are being funded. it is a presidents prerogative to say that they do not want

certain money going to specific programs. that does not make those programs fraud. >> our white house correspondent. thank you. >> thank you. >> it was another turbulent day for america's new policy toward ukraine. the u.s. and u.s. national security advisor spoke and said both -- both sides said that they are moving in a positive directive to accelerate peace talks with russia. but u.s. officials also confirm that the u.s. has paused intelligence sharing with ukraine, which it has relied on in the battlefield. nick schifrin joins us now with the latest. what has the u.s. paused and how important is it? >> senior u.s. officials confirm as part of the overall pause, ordered by president trump, that includes military aid, all

intelligence and information sharing will be paused. and that was confirmed this morning on foxbusiness by the cia director. >> president trump had a real question about whether president zelenskyy was committed to the peace process. he said, let's pause. >> on the military and intelligence front the pause that allowed the to happen will go away and we will work shoulder to shoulder with ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that is there. >> the u.s. provides both offensive and defensive intelligence information to ukraine. let's talk about the defense peer the u.s. gives ukraine radar and situational awareness of russian launches inside of russia and belarus. think russian jets and bombs, and russian drones and russian missiles. a u.s. official and a congressional official understand to me that this kind of imminent force protection will be exempted. and that means that the air

defense of cooperation, the air alert system cooperation, will continue in ukraine. here's the offensive. two congressional officials, and a military official confirmed to me that the u.s. has paused assistance that allows ukrainian strikes into russia, offensive strikes will be more precise. ukraine can already launch these strikes by themselves. into russia but without u.s. assistance. they will be much less precise. the u.s. also provides targeted assistance to ukrainian soldiers on the front lines inside of ukraine. it is not clear if that assistance is being affected so far. but bottom line -- u.s. officials tell me that depending on the extent of this pause it will cost ukrainian li-- lives. european officials continue to tell me that that the feel there is a transatlantic break. in the most recent evidence of that came today. the french president said something that he hasn't said publicly that he will consider

using french nuclear weapons to replace the protection of u.s. nuclear weapons that the u.s. has provided for the last few decades. and he said this. about a european plan for ukraine. >> this is a plan for a solid, lasting, verifiable peace. i would like to believe that the united states will stay by our side. but we have to be ready if this is not the case. >> that is a pretty fundamental but from america's oldest ally. >> separately, what did the u.s. announced today on how it is aiming to negotiate? >> for the first time in known memory, the united states is negotiating directly with a foreign terrorist organization. the white house announced that adam bolter, who is currently a senior state department advisor, he is nominated to be the special presidential envoy is negotiating directly with hamas. those talks can cover cease fire or cover the future of gaza should the war end formally.

but tonight president trump met with hostage families and delivered what he called a final warning for hamas. "shalom, hamas. you can choose, release all the hostages now, not later. and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you." there has been no response from hamas. >> more to come on that front. nick schifrin, our thanks to you, as always. >> thank you. >> i'm stephanie sy with news hour west. here are the latest headlines. we start with more on the new tariff exemption for cars coming into the u.s. from canada and mexico. the white house said president trump spoke with the heads of ford, general motors and stellantis before announcing the one-month pause. and said the president would stay open to additional exemptions. the white house press secretary told reporters today that the idea is for the automakers to

use that time to shift more production to the u.s. >> he told them that, they should get on it, start investing, start moving, shift production to the united states of america where they will pay no tariff. that is the ultimate goal. >> meantime, there has been global reaction to president trump's tariffs. mexico's president said her country to look for other trading partners if necessary. and china's embassy to the u.s. posted on social media that if the u.s. once a tear for, a trade war, or any other type of war, we are ready to fight to the end. i 2400 person migrant detention center in texas is being reopened by the trump administration. the facility's operator said they plan to host families, resuming the practice of detaining children. family detention was and did in 2021, but trump's border czar has said the administration is planning to resume the practice. severe weather is battering a

large chunk of the country. powerful storms killed at least three people in mississippi, while other states are experiencing high winds, downpours and blizzard conditions. [winds gusting] >> in iowa, wind a highways goes on highways. officials in north carolina assessed damage on the ground from a possible tornadond snow. while in oklahoma, residents of a small town have been cleaning up from a storm that tore apart buildings. los angeles county is suing southern california edison saying the utilities equipment cost january's eton fire. the lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damage is caused by the blaze saying that the fight massively impacted the county's natural resources, harms the

environment -- the fire destroyed more than 9000 structures and killed 17 people in the altadena area. edison says it is reviewing the case. the justice department charged 12 chinese hackers and law enforcement officers today in what they are calling a global hacking campaign. officials say the cyber actor targeted dissidents, new outlets and agencies including the treasury department which was compromised late last year. u.s. congressman sylvester turner has died. turner spent 27 years in the texas house of representatives before serving as houston's mayor from 2016 to 2024. turner took office two months ago and just last night attended president trump's address to congress. in 2022, he announced he'd undergone treatment for bone cancer and last year said he was cancer free.

sylvester turner was 70 years old. and finally, nba superstar lebron james is finding new milestones to hit. >> lebron. open three! got it! >> with a three pointer last night against the new orleans pelicans, james became the first player in nba history to surpass 50,000 points across regular and playoff games. that's 6000 more than his nearest rival kareem abdul-jabbar. the 40-year-old james is playing in his 22nd season now tied with vince carter for the most years played. the lakers also won last night for their seventh straight victory. still to come on the news hour, the supreme court rejects the trump administration's bid to freeze billions in foreign aid payments. and a look ahead at how that deep political divide will impact the president's agenda and policymaking. >> this is the "pbs newshour"

from the david m. rubenstein studio at in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> the trump administration announces planning to fire thousands more employees of the department of veterans affairs as part of the white house effort to dramatically downsize the federal workforce. a quarter of the workforce comprises veterans themselves, and that is prompting questions about how the cuts might affect the quality and timeliness of the services the v.a. it provides. doug collins is the secretary of the department of veterans affairs enjoins us not. welcome to the news hour. >> i'm glad to be here. >> earlier this evening you confirmed that the v.a. will terminate an additional 70,000 plus staffers and you say these cuts will help the v.a. fulfill its core mission. how exactly? how is it possible to reduce staffing and resources without

negatively impacting the quality and timeliness of care? >> well, first off, i did not announce that we were actually going through it at this moment could i said we are beginning the process to look at a reduction in force that will resemble about 15% of the force and that is what we have begun to do. what we have done all along is take a look at our core functions, making sure the veteran's first. and it is sort of an image or -- amateur that this cannot affect quality of care and what we've experienced is washington, d.c.'s tendency to throw money and people and problems. over the last four years there has been $130 billion added to the budget of the v.a., and plus 80,000 employment and back lots of winter, health care wait times have actually went up and when this was all in a different position for years ago for the question is not what, what we are looking at to make sure we are getting efficient is falling with the president has called for but also making sure that we

are delivering at the best way. and we are the best one to look at that -- who is doing a great job and saying how can we do more efficiently? >> given the wait time scandal. during the obama administration. what safeguards are in place to ensure veterans do not face longer delays or reduced services? >> employs doing their jobs and which is what, we're working to make sure that they have the tools to do that. we also putting in place, and making sure that they have the critical assets to the impor tmant schedules. and how we deal with our hiring. remember, one of the things we talked about that is not been talked about enough as we are protecting and protected over 300,000 positions at the v.a. as front facing to our veterans, not only in health care but in benefits as well put we're doing this to make sure that we are actually getting the results we needed. i think too long we found in washington i said this before.

that we have this idea that money and people will solve issues. and really the reality is if you do not have good processes in place, you are not going to solve the problem. this is been going on on the hill and we have known this on capitol hill for years. senator johnny isakson from georgia who used to be the chair of the senate v.a. committees of the problem with a v.a. is not that it needs more money it needed a better structure. and that is what we are trying to provide. >> a question about the process because our team has heard from scores of veterans who have been terminated as a result of these doge cuts. and there is an air force veteran who asked that we protect his identity, he says he was twice promoted yet received a termination notice describing poor job performance. >> last week, i was locked out of my computer and told, handed a blanket termination email that was sent from opm saying that i was being let go due to poor performance. it's a flat out lie.

it is a disgusting lie at that. i received awards, certificates. i was treated like a criminal. like i had done something wrong. they are destroying people's lives to get to these numbers that you are requesting. if you do not realize that, i am trying to let you know now, this is your wake-up call. >> what do you say to that? the dismissive treatment that some v.a. staffers are describing related to their termination? >> well, one thing, this will be in a probationary employee who was let go. this is where this has been coming from the process. which is an understanding we are looking at the total picture. does an employee that was in a non- out of those 300,000 jobs not a front facing position that affects veterans health directly or veterans benefits directly poor look, this is something that we have, there is nothing i take more serious than having to look at our workforce and making, having layoffs. we feel for that but it happens not only in government. it happens all across the country and many jobs that we

are seeing just in the last little bit with southwest airlines and others who are now announcing large layoffs. these are the kinds of things that are hard to do and they are certainly not easy and i take very seriously but also in the perspective of the we have to look out and say, are we going to be fulfilling the mission the president has asked us to do and that is to take care of our veterans but also do -- it in a cost-effective and efficient manner. one of the things i've said that is not mentioned in the press if this way a area in which it should've been flagged or a mistake part of this probationer, there is an exemption process that has been used many times but undoubtably in this person's case their supervisor decided or they decided not to ask for the exemption because their position where it was and what was going on. again, it is bad when anyone loses their job but there have been things in place to make sure that we are trying to target as best we can the areas that we need to. >> veterans as i'm sure you know have been hit hard across the board as it relates to these cuts because veterans comprise 30% of the federal workforce.

and there are americans who no doubt believe that people who serve their country and who continue that service through their federal job should be exempt from these firings. how do you feel? >> well i view it as someone who serves in the air force and who has also been deployed and understands what lifelike is there, it is interesting to me that they look to the government as where is an exempt employee that our job is, in the government -- for a job for a government employee something sacrosanct outside of the government to admire the question is, for those who say they should be exempt inside of government, where are they in the process of taking care of veterans not working for the government? all veterans are the same. they are in benefits. they served our country well. they are very protected and loved by me and wanting to be cared for. and that is what they will continue to get their care from health care and benefits from the v.a., but again, it is an interesting thing that we look at government employment as something different than

employment outside. again, to say that a veteran who is employed by the government is different than a veteran employed outside of government is just frankly not a valid argument. >> a question about veteran care. we spoke with a veteran who is currently receiving in patient treatment at the bath v.a. medical center in new york and this person said the cuts that have been instituted already are affecting quality of care. >> we have also had a lot of scheduled groups that are being canceled because we do not have the staff to facilitate them. and so, that leaves us veterans to our own devices. a lot of people just isolate in their rooms and for people who suffer from substance use disorder or mental health issues, isolation is one of the worst things you can do. especially in recovery from substance use. to the administration says, there is no effect on veteran care, i say you are absolutely wrong. come here and i will show you. >> what is your response? >> well, my response is this is

just a piece of journalism. it is not doing its job in the sense if you are taking a veteran who is saying they are not getting care in a facility in a health sitting in which those jobs and others have been exempt. and so care that has been taken care of would not have been affected. and also, by the way this happened within the last week to say that there is all of a sudden this dearth in care because of cuts that are happening here, is simply not right. remember, in these areas, we are also having, we have exempted 300,000 employees and sometimes we are also having if someone leaves or goes away from the position we are having to hire. we are not under the high re-freeze for those positions so we try to bring people in. but to blame this and use this event to blame it on cuts and blame it on what is happening right now with the v.a. is not fair to the american people, not fair to veterans who are hearing this, thinking that something else is going on. maybe this person perspective, i respect their position, but their suspicion is not -- the

position has not reflected what we actually done. >> how would a veteran be able to flag that concern and have it addressed in his new administration? >> they can go, you know, if they are having issues, they can talk to the people at the v.a., they can talk to their schedules. again as always happens here and something we have to get away from it if you are having proms with scheduling or scheduling is not happening we have some issues in third carter scheduling, and how they are trying to get their schedule made, lou reach out to your veteran service organization, reach out to our veteran crisis line, talk to the people, don't just simple he said there and think that you are by yourself. we have multitudes of resources to reach out to find out what is going on and to find out what is really happening. my concern is, though, is that people are being led or mistold things that are not actually affecting their specific care and they have been -- been trying to brought it out to more open attack compositions they do not understand or don't like. >> we invite you back any time to continue this conversation. doug collins, thank you.

>> take care. >> the supreme court today rejected the trump administration's request to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid for work that has already been done. the administration asked the court to block a lower court ruling ordering the government to release the funds. it remains unclear when the aid will be distributive. john yang is here to unpack all of this. >> you remember on day one the president froze foreign aid spending. groups that got that money went to court. and a district court judge in washington, a biden appointee, said that money for projects that have been completed had to be sent out the door. the trump administration went to the supreme court wanted to block that order in today the supreme court said no. a it was 5-4 voge.

-- vote. the majority included chief justice roberts and amy coney barrett. i would like to tell you why they did this but i cannot because there was no explanation as is usually the case. when you're dealing with an emergency application and it is an unsigned order, it is part of what is called the shadow doc. >> what about the dissenting justices. what did they say in this case? >> written by justice alito, joined by thomas and kevin. he said the district court judge overstepped his bounds. he wrote today the court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an active judiciary hubris and opposes a $2 billion penalty on american taxpayers. >> in terms of the freezing or unfreezing of the funds, what happens now? >> it does not mean the money starts going out the door immediately. the justices and sent it back to the district court.

back to judge ali for him to decide which programs get un frozen and when he said keep in mind the ability of the administration to carry out your order. and conceivably there will be another hearing about which programs get unfrozen. and the court, i'm sorry, the trump administration could go in and argue against some programs getting unfrozen, but i would note that in the latest pbs/npr poll 58% said they think that trump will ignore court rulings. >> 50%. what about the foreign groups, foreign aid groups that handle all of this finding, how are they reacting to this? >> they are a little cautious because they do not know what is going to happen next. they don't know when this money starts going up. this is -- an executive director of action aid usa. she said we welcome the supreme court's rejection of the administration's disingenuous bid for more time to review

payments and resume funding for critical life-saving foreign assistance. but she also said, this ruling is not enough. the administration must be obligated to disburse the funding that is being withheld and reinstate staff who may be needed to do so. >> while we have you, there was a moment last night that got a lot of attention -- an interaction between president trump as he left the podium and greeted the supreme court justices. the mic kicked up some of what they had to say. let's take a listen. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. thank you again. >> won't forget. >> so good. >> thank you again. won't forget it. what is that about? >> we don't know what he was thanking chief justice roberts for. it is a reminder that these are the rare events in washington or anywhere where the supreme court

justices and the president are in the same room. supreme court justices say it makes them some of them say it makes them very uncomfortable. john roberts a few years back said i don't know why we are there. the justice thomas has stopped going about a decade ago. those who do go, are mindful of the protocol, not to react to anything. of course we remember the 2010 state of the union when justice alito responded to president barack obama's criticism of a, of a court decision by saying not true. >> john yang. thank you so much. ♪ >> we are going to get simple little perspective now on the

president's speech to congress and on what comes next. for that we are joined by tiffany smiley, a former u.s. senate candidate in washington state and a columnist for "the new york times." >> thank you for having us. >> let's start with your reaction to the president's remarks last night. president trump riding high, his party controls congress, he is pushed through a staggering number of exec of actions, 44 days in. what did you make of the way he addressed the nation less like? >> i saw bold leadership and strength, peace through strength on the world stage from president trump. very different from 2017. he seems untethered, unburned. this is a different trump in the sense that he knows how to get things done in d.c. now. and he has been delivering for the american people for the last 43 days. promises made and cap promises kept. not only that, he really painted a vision of the golden age, of america, where we are headed and

what we can be as far as our economy in this country. but the number one thing that he touched on and his guests really backed up, i think the reason that he won the election was securing our southern border. stopping the flow of fentanyl and protecting families he has already delivered on that tenfold. i.c.e. arrests is up like 600%. those are huge numbers. >> what is your take away from last night? >> what is interesting about these events as they are supposed to be the president going to congress and asking the congress to pursue the president's program. usually a legislative program. what was striking about last night was that there was very little of this. the president does not really have a legislative program. the reason the president spent so much time talking about executive orders is because i think the president and his administration are more than aware that they do not really have either the leeway or

perhaps ability to get through an actual legislative package through congress. to my mind, the perception of strength, the bragging is a paper tiger. at the end of the day, if you do not have legislation to change the u.s. code, your executive orders are ultimately temporary. if there is a democrat in office in four years, they can be reversed. much of what president trump has done thus far is on the order of the temporary. the absence of any real attempt to persuade congress to pass anything into law to my mind signals profound weakness on the part of the president. >> what about that? we have in the first few weeks we have seen the consolidation, a real flexing, stretching of executive authority by this president.

white house officials saying they are not sure they have to abide by court rulings they do not agree with. all of that you have heard has proper concerns about constitutional crisis. is there validity to that concern? >> i don't think so and as long as i dems keep crying constitutional crisis, 2026 will look very very good for the republicans. trump's approval rating is 45 percent. the second highest in 45 years. the cbs poll yesterday that came out, 76 percent of -- approved of his speech. he was talking to the american people. in the senate moved swiftly with his nominations. very quickly. faster than any president in history. they have gone through. and now you can tell, he's coming back and he's working with congress. elon was on capitol hill today meeting with senators, meeting with congressman, asking questions, getting doge lined out, and i know elon will go back to the managers who will run the show and one of the

number one issues as well for the record people is the waste and fraud in the abuse. to your point, donald trump is delivering for the american people. this isn't status quo, this is not like government as usual anymore. he is an outsider, someone who knows how to get things done. and that is what he's bringing to government, which is really refreshing. >> on the individual policy front, polls show that people support all lot of what the president has done on that issue by issue basis so far. when people hear concerns about a constitutional crisis, does that resonate? >> i think this effort on the part of the department of government efficiency to unilaterally slash spending, to cancel appropriations, i do think that constitutes a constitutional crisis because it is directed tacked on congress's constitutional right to determine what the country spends and the executive branch has an obligation to follow that. but i will say that as far as policies go, it is interesting because we are still at the

stage in public opinion where people are giving the president the benefit of the doubt. i will say that 45% is among the lowest approval ratings for a new president that is not something i would brag about if i were the president. but the public is giving him the benefit of the doubt. but it remains to be seen what happens, for example, when the public learns that the administration wants to cut 40 5000 workers from the department of veterans affairs. they want to slash half of the social security administration and they want to cut medicaid, $880 billion, calling for removing -- moving from medicaid. those are things that help ordinary people. my parents are veterans and depend on the departments of federal affairs. people like my parents may end up having a hard time getting the medical care they are entitled to because of these cuts. and i think is that stuff becomes apparent, as that stuff reaches the american public, trump will lose and is losing the benefit of the doubt.

>> is there a risk the president runs in overreaching, when the impact starts to hit people at home that they'll start to step away from him, a president that they put into place to bring down grocery prices essentially? >> right. you know, we also have to look at what president trump was handed. he was handed an economy that was not working for the american people and an open southern border with fentanyl coming in and killing our kids, every city in this country, every town in this country is essentially a border town. he is looking to bring manufacturing and jobs back into this country. and he also touched on his speech as well, which i think is important going forward for the future, which will win him votes if they can get this done is a balanced budget. so, what's the alternative? bigger government, more spending or balanced budget? >> we started the conversation with tiffany, so i will give you the last word. i need to ask about democrats in this moment. we saw last night in the chamber some silent protests with signs,

we saw some walk out and we saw al green escorted out after he refused to take his seat after yelling in protest. are democrats doing what they should be doing to meet this moment in the opposition? >> i'm not sure they are. a large number of americans are looking for more moderate positions but for political leadership, for someone to voice and actualize the kind of fear and anger and distress and resolve that they feel looking at what is happening in washington. the onc-- the one piece of legislation is the $1 trillion tax cut. those two thigns are not popular. recessions are not popular. tax cuts for the rich, famously not popular. you do not hear democrats focusing onthe fact that the president's agenda far from

bringing prosperity, far from growth, is doing the precise opposite and acting as a vacuum of upwards distribution for the very wealthy. i would like to see democrats talk about that. >> thank you so much to you both for being here. we would love to have you both back to continue the conversation. >> thank you.. >> thank you. >> and we will be back shortly but first take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. >> it is a chance to offer your support which helps to keep programs like this one on the air. ♪ >> for those of you staying with us, we bring you a story about defying expectations. the california school for the deaf football team in its third

straight football championship. >> our encore look at the team's rise, the subject of a book published last year. >> at the california school for the deaf riverside, the cubs are gearing up for a three p. the coach adams, here using sign language call plays, had led the team to two state championships. but it was not always this way. the decades old harkens to a time when the cubs rarely had winning seasons. that ended in 2021 when they enter the championship un >> defeated. you had all of these deaf players who when they were younger had played on hearing teams. it was very. frustrating so, all of these players came together here and they felt this brotherhood, they felt this camaraderie. and i think that was part of the winning formula. >> author thomas fuller started

following the cubs in the fall of 2021. his new york times article described the rise of the all deaf team that beat hearing teams time and againthat year. >> there is something special happening. >> the article attracted national media attention. by the likes of the kelly clarkson show and world news tonight with david muir. >> the running back number 2 signing thisd, deaf people can do anything. >> soon after came a pledge from california's governor to find a $43 million athletic complex at the school. no fu-- now fuller has published "the boys of riverside." it is more than an underdog to undefeated story. it looks at deaf culture, a term he writes encompasses an entire class of people and their way of life. at a book event at the school, the intergenerational bonds of

deaf families was on full display. and for tsi greet the journalist-- and applause greeted the journals. >> i came in and i said, i love this team. >> after 2021, fuller took a leave of absence from his job the new york times to write the book. following the cubs throughout the next season, game after game, he noticed something. >> the question of what is a disability, and here's a team where everyone is deaf. all the players, all the coaches. and yet, they are using deafness as an advantage. as an edge. >> his reporting included interviews with experts outside football, including david -- a cognitive neuroscientist who explains why deaf people may have hyper abilities, starting with the way they take in what they see. >> for a deaf person, the span

of attention is spread further out into the periphery. that flashlight is a much broader beam. >> more like a flood like? >> yeah, it's more like a flood like that flashlight. that's good. with the caveat, it is not necessarily brighter but it is covering greater area. >> vision steps up to fill in the blanks left by the lack of auditory cues. the quarterback is a senior this year. he explained what is like through an interpreter. >> we rely on our eyes. so, we see the movement ahead of time. so we have two steps ahead more than a hearing team. we are much more alert. >> she says the science also suggests that deaf people are more tuned to movement around them. that could be an advantage for example to a wide receiver. watch him intercept this past in a 2021 game which the cubs won

by 11 points. >> if you are able to detect that ball is going to be headed in my direction, you might be able to pivot earlier and actually catch the ball than a hearing person who does not have those initial milliseconds of extra processing time. >> and there was another hidden advantage. the teams use of sideline which. in this case asl, american sign language. it is not only more efficient than jogging back and forth from field to huddle, it is unifying. the junior wide receiver recalled how it felt to play on a hearing team through an interpreter. >> lik aau, i like playing on the hearing team but communication is always an issue. frustration, when trying to deal with a coach and trying to communicate with the coach, now if you have a deaf coach, then that is better. >> keith adams who himself

played on deaf and hearing football teams going up says the team success comes from the support you need to being at a school for the deaf. >> they come from various background, different skin color, different status, family status. the commonality is they are deaf. i think that helps. i think, those who experience maybe mainstream education, it was a lonely time. they just have so much more opportunity as a deaf student going to a school for the deaf. >> for the author, writing they "boys of riverside" was what he called a tonic from his typical stories, covering homelessness, the pandemic, and politics. there is a great in which you write, the reporting -- i came to see the cubs as a flesh and blood realization of the american dream. how so? >> these kids, their parents were from all over the globe.

they all came together in an environment that allowed them to thrive. an environment that you could not happen to -- in tehran and you could not have and a lot of other countries but america gave them the school and america gave them the opportunity to play together into win. >> in their season opener, they won 68-28. i'm stephanie sy in riverside, california. ♪ >> remember there is a lot more online including a closer look at who makes up the federal workforce, where they work and what they do at pbs.org/news hour. >> and that is news hour for tonight. >> for all of us here the pbs news hour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by

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>> this is the "pbs newshour" west. from the david m. rubenstein studio at in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

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