AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The shutdown clock ticks down with Republican still divided over how or whether to continue to fund the federal government.

AMNA NAWAZ: California Democrat and the longest-serving woman in United States Senate history, Dianne Feinstein, passes away at the age of 90.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA): She would work with anyone to accomplish a result that was good for the country.

She didn't think she had all the answers.

GEOFF BENNETT: And several major retailers closed stores due to shoplifting, but questions remain about whether their concerns are overblown.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Two major stories from Capitol Hill tonight.

Congress has lost one of its longest-serving members, California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

We will look back on her life and career.

AMNA NAWAZ: But, first, House Republicans' highly partisan government funding plan has imploded on the chamber floor, leaving the country on the cusp of a shutdown.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is tracking the political drama and the probable real-world consequences and joins us now.

Lisa, it's good to see you.

So, Kevin McCarthy's temporary funding bill failed earlier today.

House Republicans just finished a meeting.

So, bring us up to speed.

Where do we stand right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Amna, you know I like to use weather as a way to describe the patterns happening in the U.S. Congress.

Right now, this storm that we have seen approaching on the horizon is starting to hit.

And, by that, I mean, as you say, earlier today, the House failed to pass that Republican temporary spending bill, and failed by quite a lot of votes, more than Republicans expected; 21 Republicans jumped ship on that.

So, now Kevin McCarthy has been talking to his Republicans, trying to see if they can come up with some kind of alternate plan.

And my reporting at this moment is, they haven't come up with an alternate plan, this after a morning where McCarthy took our questions, and he said he himself would reject the plan, the bipartisan plan, moving through the Senate.

Here's what he told us.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Would you sit here and ask me the question, why don't I surrender and just go with the Senate and ignore the problem?

Is that the question you would ask?

I pledged in taking this job to change Washington, to stand up for the American public.

LISA DESJARDINS: And here's why we played that sound bite.

McCarthy is trying to say that he is standing up for more spending cuts, a tighter fiscal plan, border security, those kinds of things.

That's the message he's putting out there.

But we also know, Amna, that Republicans actually don't have a plan that does any of those things that they can agree on, much less one that can get the Democratic support needed in the U.S. Senate.

We do not expect any more votes tonight, and we are waiting to see what Kevin McCarthy does next.

AMNA NAWAZ: A clearly frustrated Speaker McCarthy there.

Well, Lisa, with this shutdown looking increasingly imminent now, let's just talk about what a shutdown would mean, right?

So, just in general, remind us what would happen.

LISA DESJARDINS: This is where we're at right now.

We don't like to scare viewers unnecessarily, and we're going to be even-measured about what we're facing here.

Let's talk about it.

First of all, government shutdown right now is set to begin on Sunday, 12:01 a.m.

Most federal agencies would feel this shutdown.

This means that essential workers would stay on the job, but other workers not deemed essential would be furloughed.

They would stay home.

Now, that puts pay at risk for some six million federal workers and federal contractors together.

All in all, there are some agencies and programs that will continue.

Social Security, Medicare, they are automatically funded.

Those programs, if you have benefits through them, will continue to get those benefits.

However, there could be things like, if you want to apply for Social Security now, that itself could be on hold.

Each agency will be affected differently, but I think we will see wide ripple effects around the country, different localities affecting different things, and it will take time.

Some paychecks are being given out today.

That means, in two weeks, there could be a missing paycheck if we are still shut down at that point.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, you have been looking into potential specific impact on some really big programs that millions of people rely on, among them, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC.

What would a shutdown mean for that?

LISA DESJARDINS: We want to talk about the most vulnerable and the ones who might be the most affected.

WIC, that is a program for low-income mothers and small children.

Let's talk about it right now.

About seven million Americans, women, and children use that program.

Now, shutdown effects vary, because each state funds it a little bit differently in a formula with federal money, but some could, in fact, lose their benefits as soon as next week.

When they go to buy milk, formula, the money might not be there.

In other places, people could be unaffected.

And that is one of the problems of the shutdown.

It is confusing and also creates a lot of difficulty for people to figure out where they stand.

AMNA NAWAZ: It is confusing.

I know you have also been looking into another program people know about called Meals on Wheels.

How would that be affected in a shutdown?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

And, to go back, I should have also said, we spoke to some of the people who are recipients of WIC.

And here's what they said.

Here's their concerns right now.

JESSICA JOHNSON, WIC Recipient: Easily, we go through like four or five gallons a month, cereal, oatmeal, coffee, all that stuff.

So, losing that and the fresh food benefits means we get about $20 in -- $20 a month for fresh food and vegetables or frozen vegetables.

And we use that for everything.

If we lose WIC benefits, we will definitely eat less fresh foods, because they're so expensive.

LISA DESJARDINS: So, a serious situation there.

And on Meals on Wheels, similar.

How big is that program?

- - 2.2 million seniors around this country use Meals on Wheels annually.

Now that program, about a third of it is federally funded, but, even so, because that money is so important, it could in fact mean fewer meals, in some cases, no meals, depending on the situation in each locality.

And, again, talk to some people who are really thinking about this and potentially feeling it.

Here's what those have to say.

PATTI LYONS, Board Chairwoman, Meals on Wheels America: It'll be catastrophic.

We know that good nutrition, this breaking of the isolation really reduces the number of people that go into the hospital.

They're able to stay at home.

And we can feed somebody for an entire year for what it costs for one day in the hospital.

So we're going to pay as a country.

But, most importantly, our older adults are going to pay with their health.

LISA DESJARDINS: Older adults, women and children just some of the groups now really concerned about this shutdown expected to start on Sunday.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Lisa, the deadline is midnight on Saturday, September 30, to reach a deal.

What happens next?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

We are waiting for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to decide what he wants the House to do.

We expect some kind of vote tomorrow in the House, but we really don't know what could pass over there.

Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to vote on something there, also discussions about whether that includes border security or not.

At this moment, like I say, the winds are blowing in cross directions here in Congress at a moment where you really think the country needs to move forward.

Instead, there really seems to be a lot of confusion.

Hopefully, tomorrow will tell us more about the direction ahead.

But, right now, I'm Amna, from where I stand, I really don't see a way out of this shutdown in this moment.

One other note though, lawmakers, they will automatically be paid.

That has to do with the Constitution.

They can opt to put their pay on hold.

I asked Speaker Kevin McCarthy if he will do that, and he said he would.

He said he will not be paid if the shutdown hits.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins covering the latest for us on Capitol Hill.

Lisa, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: And now to the other major news out of the nation's capital.

Trailblazing Senator Dianne Feinstein died at her home in Washington, D.C., last night.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hours earlier, Feinstein cast what would be her final vote on the Senate floor.

You see here right there in the purple blazer raising her hand in favor of a short-term spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): And it's been a lot of years.

So I want to thank everybody up here.

GEOFF BENNETT: She was the U.S. Senate's oldest sitting senator.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE) GEOFF BENNETT: Dianne Feinstein was elected to the chamber to represent California back in 1992.

But the centrist Democrat was breaking gender barriers long before coming to Capitol Hill.

Feinstein became San Francisco's first female mayor after a double assassination at city hall in 1978.

She led the city out of a particularly turbulent time after its mayor, George Moscone, and supervisor, Harvey Milk, the city's first openly gay elected official, were gunned down by a fellow politician.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Both Mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.

MAN: Oh!

MAN: Jesus Christ!

GEOFF BENNETT: Feinstein's calm and compassion also helped guide San Francisco's gay community through the AIDS epidemic that ravaged the city in the 1980s.

In 1992, Feinstein won her seat in the U.S. Senate, along with Barbara Boxer.

They were the first women to ever represent California in the Upper Chamber.

It was hailed as the year of the woman after a new wave of women were elected to the Senate and House.

Feinstein became a passionate advocate for a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights to gun control.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Thank you.

We have seen it in universities.

We have seen them in elementary schools.

And now we have seen them used against first graders.

The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons.

GEOFF BENNETT: One of her greatest legislative achievements came early in her career, an assault weapons ban she championed then-President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994.

Feinstein also gained a reputation for reaching across the aisle to find compromise with Republicans, sometimes drawing scrutiny from liberals in her own party.

She was the first woman to serve as the ranking Democrat on the Senate's powerful Judiciary Committee.

She'd oversee a string of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including one for then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh as he faced sexual assault allegations.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: This behavior revealed a hostility and belligerence that is unbecoming of someone seeking to be elevated to the United States Supreme Court.

GEOFF BENNETT: Feinstein was also the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Under her leadership, the panel conducted a five-year investigation into the CIA's interrogation techniques during the George W. Bush administration.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Even if one were to set aside all of the moral arguments, our review was a meticulous and detailed examination of records.

It finds that coercive interrogation techniques did not produce the vital, otherwise unavailable intelligence the CIA has claimed.

GEOFF BENNETT: In her final years, Feinstein became more visibly frail and confused, triggering calls for her resignation.

In February, she announced she would not be seeking a sixth term next year.

Today President Biden, who served with Feinstein in the Senate, reflected on her passing.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: She was a historic figure, a trailblazer for women, and a great friend.

Dianne made her mark on everything from national security to the environment, gun safety, to protecting civil liberties.

The country is going to miss her dearly, and so will Jill and I. GEOFF BENNETT: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed those sentiments on the Senate floor.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): As the nation mourns this tremendous loss, we're comforted in knowing how many mountains Dianne moved, how many lives she impacted, how many glass ceilings she shattered along the way.

America, America is a better place because of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

GEOFF BENNETT: Keeping with Senate tradition, her desk in the chamber was draped with a black cloth and adorned with a vase of flowers, a tribute to her long legacy of public service and trailblazing career.

Dianne Feinstein 90 years old.

For reflections on Dianne Feinstein's life, we turn to someone who knew her well, former California Congresswoman Jane Harman.

She and Feinstein were elected to Congress on the same day back in 1992 and worked together for nearly two decades.

Thank you for being with us.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA): Thank you, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: First, my condolences on the loss of your friend.

You were with Senator Feinstein just last night.

There was a private meeting just hours before she passed, and you shared with us this photo of your visit.

Tell us about it.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: Well, how lucky was I that it occurred to me about a day ago that I missed my friend Dianne and I wanted to go buy to see her?

So I arranged to go yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours ago, or just about 24 hours, to her home, and she and I sat in her study for an hour, with her housekeeper coming back and forth and her little beloved dog, Kirby II, in her lap, talking about the past, but also talking about the future.

What people may not understand is that Dianne was still in the arena, and she knew how much she could still do for California, especially appropriations for California.

And we were talking about votes, and we were talking about her instinct to try to come up with some idea of how to bring the country together.

What could be needed more hours before our government might shut down?

And I was blown away by how beautiful she looked and how much not just in the present, but in the future she was.

And when I hugged and kissed her goodbye and her housekeeper took that amazing photo, I expected to see my friend anytime soon.

And I'm just shocked, as I think the whole country is, by her loss last evening.

GEOFF BENNETT: Her career was one of many firsts.

She was, of course, a trailblazer for women in politics, but also in terms of promoting progressive policy.

She was behind the first congressional action on global warming.

She secured the extension of the Violence Against Women Act until 2027.

She also authored the 1994 assault weapons ban.

What do you see as the sum total of her impact?

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: Oh, she was fearless.

I don't know anybody more fearless than she was on behalf of things she cared about and thought were the right things to do.

You could not budge her, not ever.

The assault weapons ban is a great example, because, there, many members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I think maybe even then-Senator Joe Biden, were much more hesitant to push ahead with that than she was.

And she got it done with help in the committee.

It passed the Senate.

I think it passed the Senate first, but I voted for it as a House member in my first term, very risky vote for her, but also for me.

And, to remind, in 1994, the Democrats lost the majority.

Newt Gingrich came to power.

Dianne and I were reelected.

In my case, I was reelected by 811 votes out of 225,000 counted votes after a nine-month ordeal, where not only was a count demanded, but there was an investigation by the House, et cetera, et cetera.

Looking back on that, Dianne's leadership got me on the team.

I think I would have supported it anyway.

But I would never, ever, never have thought about not following Dianne's league.

I just -- I mean, she was a marvel.

GEOFF BENNETT: Questions about her health and her mental capacity in many ways shadowed what were her final years in office.

Why did she ultimately refuse to resign, even amid the growing pressure from Democrats?

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: Oh, I fully understand that.

And that's why please show again the photograph of her yesterday standing next to me.

She was beautiful.

She was frail, but she was still in the fight.

Her view was that she was elected by the citizens of California to her fourth term -- I believe it's her fourth term -- that she was there to be the most effective advocate for appropriations for money for California, which she was, and to fight for other things that were important for the country, which she did.

And even yesterday, as I said, she was talking about things she wanted to do in the future.

So why should she resign?

She could function.

Was it perfect?

No, I think she would have admitted that.

But her cognitive faculties were there and adequate for the fights for the present and the future, and it was her call, not somebody else's call.

It really is sad, and this has been pointed out by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita of the House, that these things were said about a woman.

They were never said about the men in the Senate who were much more frail than Dianne in their last days.

GEOFF BENNETT: I was struck by the fact that both President Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in separate statements, they both said that they cherished their friendship with Senator Feinstein.

And we are in this moment where comity and bipartisanship are in short supply in Congress, what did Senator Feinstein model for other lawmakers?

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: She modeled the fact that she would work with anyone to accomplish a result that was good for the country.

She didn't think she had all the answers and everybody else was dumb.

She thought she would bring her best self to the problem.

She had an excellent staff always, which would help provide her with material.

She was well-informed.

And she would listen and she would lead.

And she did that with absolutely everybody.

And I can't think of anyone in the Senate - - I don't know some of the newbies -- but anyone who worked with her over years, who doesn't have a fond thought for her.

And, surely, she worked with Mitch.

Surely, she did.

Someone else she worked closely with who is a dear friend of mine now is Susan Collins of Maine, who was on the floor this morning passionately talking about Dianne's leadership qualities.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): She was a pioneer and a strong and dignified leader.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: Lisa Murkowski was another.

Patty Murray, a Democrat, was saying beautiful things about Dianne on the Senate floor.

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): That was Dianne.

She did her job every day.

She cared about her country.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: And, of course, her dear friend Nancy Pelosi has been all over this.

And Nancy Pelosi's daughter Nancy Corinne Pelosi was an extraordinary support for Dianne in her last days.

So, I don't know anyone who didn't value and learn from associating with Dianne.

I surely did.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned Senator Collins.

We can, of course, show the picture where Senator Collins brought the watercolor that Senator Feinstein had painted for her.

She brought that to the floor of the Senate today as she spoke so beautifully about her friend.

Former California Congresswoman Jane Harman, thank you so much for your time.

And, again, our condolences on the loss of your friend.

FMR.

REP. JANE HARMAN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: The United Auto Workers strike expanded to two more Ford and GM plants in the Midwest.

Some 7,000 union members walked off the job today to join picket lines.

UAW President Shawn Fain made the announcement in a video address.

SHAWN FAIN, President, United Auto Workers: I'm calling on Ford's Chicago assembly plant to stand up and go on strike.

And I'm calling on GM's Lansing Delta Township to stand up and go out on strike.

Our courageous members of these two plants are the next wave of reinforcements in our fight for record contracts.

GEOFF BENNETT: The union did not expand the strike to any additional plants at Stellantis.

Fain said that's because the company made a new offer today on pay raises and other issues.

In Pakistan, suicide bombings killed at least 57 people today.

In the first, a bomber targeted a religious celebration in the Southwest, killing 52 people.

The others died in the northwest when a mosque was attacked.

Video from the first bombing showed charred personal items on the ground where some 500 people had gathered.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The World Court called today for Azerbaijan to withdraw troops from sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.

But there was no sign that Azerbaijan will comply after recapturing the region last week.

Instead, the exodus of ethnic Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh neared 100,000, more than 80 percent of the population.

U.N. and Red Cross officials say they're struggling to keep up.

CARLOS MORAZZANI, International Committee of the Red Cross: We had been planning for evacuations to be a longer process.

Evacuations this week has gone very, very fast, very high numbers of people, but, as a result of that many people become stranded.

GEOFF BENNETT: Officials said close to a third of the refugees are children.

There's word tonight that migration toward the U.S. this year has hit record levels through the dangerous Darien Gap linking Colombia and Panama.

Data from Panama shows more than 400,000 people made the trek through the jungle region as of the end of September.

That figure is almost double the total number of crossings there for all of last year.

Officials say children and babies account for more than half the total this year.

Today marked six months that American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been jailed in Russia, with no end in sight.

The Wall Street Journal reporter is charged with espionage.

He has denied it.

And the U.S. State Department says he's being wrongfully detained.

His latest appeal was denied earlier this month.

The U.S. military's top officer, Army General Mark Milley, formally ended a four-year tenure today with a strongly worded defense of democracy.

As chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Milley had a rocky relationship with then-President Trump.

Today, as President Biden and Vice President Harris joined a farewell tribute at Fort Myer in Virginia, the general offered this apparent rebuke of Mr. Trump.

FMR.

GEN. MARK MILLEY, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: We don't take an oath to a king or queen or to a tyrant or a dictator.

And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator.

We don't take an oath to an individual.

We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we're willing to die to protect it.

GEOFF BENNETT: Air Force General Charles Brown was sworn in to succeed Milley as chair of Joint Chiefs.

Police in Las Vegas say they finally scored a breakthrough in the drive-by killing of rapper Tupac Shakur back in 1996.

A local man named Duane Davis was arrested today and charged with murder.

He allegedly ordered the attack on a BMW that Shakur was riding in after a brawl at a casino.

Investigators say Davis' 2019 memoir gave them crucial evidence.

And an update to a story we brought you last year.

A Texas jury has awarded nearly $2.5 million to an advocate for military victims of toxic burn pits.

Le Roy Torres alleged he was forced to resign as a State Trooper in 2012.

He said he needed accommodation because of lung damage caused by exposure to burn pits in Iraq.

Torres co-founded the group Burn Pits 360 to help other veterans exposed to toxic chemicals.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today it will consider whether state laws regulating social media platforms violate the Constitution.

The statutes were enacted by Republican lawmakers in Texas and Florida.

They bar companies from censoring users based on their viewpoints.

The industry argues the laws make it harder to curb extremism and hate speech.

And, on Wall Street, stocks limped into the weekend amid ongoing worries about interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 159 points to close at 33507.

The Nasdaq rose 18 points.

The S&P 500 gave up 11.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines; and actor Cheech Marin helps to open a permanent showcase exclusively dedicated to Chicano art.

Target announced this week that it's planning to close several stores, citing retail theft and organized retail crime as major problems.

It's raising growing concerns and questions about whether retail theft is getting worse and what can be done about it.

The retail giant said it will close nine stores in four states next month, including in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle.

Target said it was doing so out of concern about the safety of workers and customers.

Target's decision comes as multiple other retailers, including CVS, Macy's and Walmart, say theft has become a significant problem for their bottom lines.

Retailers are locking up more merchandise, saying there's a notable rise in organized theft, where two or more people grab merchandise and then resell it.

Others point to a disturbing number of smash-and-grab robberies, including looting in Philadelphia earlier this week.

The National Retail Federation said its latest survey of members found that inventory loss cost retailers about $112 billion.

But some industry observers say those numbers are not clear and may be masking other problems, including internal theft by employees.

Last winter, a former Walgreens executive acknowledged during an earnings call that "Maybe we cried too much last year" when it came to characterizing theft at its stores.

But incidents like two nights of looting in Philadelphia are angering business owners and alarming residents.

BETSY AGRE, Philadelphia Resident: It's just happening too often and it's just terribly, terribly upsetting.

And my children are like, you have to move out of the city.

And this is where I live, though.

GEOFF BENNETT: Those robberies started Tuesday after an earlier protest when charges were dropped against an officer who shot and killed a man during a traffic stop.

Philadelphia police insist the lootings were not connected to the protests.

But some residents took issue, saying anger over the police could not be discounted.

Let's dig deeper into this.

We're joined by Gabrielle Fonrouge, who covers the retail industry for CNBC.

Thanks for being with us.

GABRIELLE FONROUGE, Retail Reporter, CNBC: Yes, thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, you have got these major retailers.

They're blaming a spike in theft for their decision to close some stores.

Is retail theft actually getting worse, according to the data?

GABRIELLE FONROUGE: The problem is, is that there's really no good data out there.

It's a difficult thing to measure.

You can look at crime rates for certain jurisdictions, but they're not going to break it down by specifically retail crime.

You're just going to see overall larceny arrests.

And the National Retail Federation, it's one of the largest trade associations in the world.

It's the trade association for the retail industry.

They conduct an annual survey on shrink, which is lost inventory, which includes things like retail crime.

They just came out with their survey.

And it's once again not really conclusive.

What you will see is that retail crime increased or shrink overall increased to $112 billion in 2022.

That's up from $93.9 billion in the prior year.

But what they do is they apply the rates of lost inventory to total U.S. retail sales.

So, as total retail sales grow, so does that number.

That doesn't actually really tell us that much.

GEOFF BENNETT: So then are there instances where companies are using theft as the reason for a store closure to cover up underperformance or to cover up mismanagement?

GABRIELLE FONROUGE: Yes, so what we have learned in our reporting is that the retailers who are talking about shrink, lost inventory and specifically retail crime on their earnings calls when they're talking to their investors and things like that, they like to blame retail crime specifically and organize retail crime.

But what my reporting has found is that it can often be internal issues that can lead to these high shrink numbers, these lost inventory.

Things like employee theft is part of it.

That's hiring people who end up stealing from you, also having poor inventory management, not knowing where all of your stuff is along the supply chain.

When you think about where an item is manufactured all the way down to the store level, things get lost.

And, at the same time, retailers are under a lot of pressure from a host of places.

Right now, consumers aren't really spending as much on discretionary goods.

They're really keeping it solely on necessities.

So they're facing pressure from all of these places.

And they're more likely to talk about the impact of shrink.

GEOFF BENNETT: Still, though, there's no denying the uptick in what are these brazen mob style smash-and-grab robberies that are plaguing big box stores.

They're plaguing upscale retailers.

How are companies responding to that?

GABRIELLE FONROUGE: Yes, so I mean, you're completely right.

We have all seen the videos.

These are viral videos showing people running in, grabbing stuff.

But these are also isolated incidents, right?

When you see these things on the news every single day, when you read them in the paper, you must feel like, wow, every retail store is under attack.

But when you look at the numbers, that shrink percentage that the NRF came out with, that shows how much inventory retailers are losing as a percentage of sales.

And it came out to 1.57.

And so a healthy shrink number, every retailer, every company has to plan for lost inventory.

It is a cost of doing business.

And the amount that they plan for is anywhere between 1 percent to 2, 2.5 percent.

So, in the latest survey, it showed 1.57 percent.

That is considered a healthy lost inventory rate.

Now, if it was at 3 percent, we'd be having a different conversation.

And what retailers are doing about this, they are using their economic muscle, they're using their influence to pass legislation to influence lawmakers to get that legislation past the finish line that imposes stricter penalties for organized retail crime offenses.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, I was going to raise that as a question to you, because adding to this problem, you have got the decriminalization of low-level offenses in some states that has created an opportunity for people, for criminals, really, to exploit the system.

And once an item is stolen, there are many ways now for someone to resell that item without any sort of monitoring or interference from law enforcement.

How are retailers responding to that and talking about it?

GABRIELLE FONROUGE: Yes, absolutely.

It is easier than ever to resell stolen goods.

And that is absolutely an issue.

Last year, Congress passed the INFORM Act, which requires digital marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, but even smaller places, to disclose the identity of high-volume sellers, so to make it easier for law enforcement to track down those people who are stealing large amounts of goods and then reselling them online.

That's one part of it.

That's already gotten past the finish line.

And the next one that they're looking towards is the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act.

And that kind of touches on this idea of the number that you have to reach in order for it to be a felony offense.

Part of the problem is, you have repeat offenders who will steal small amounts of goods over time, so $100 here, $200 there, $300 here.

That's all going to be misdemeanor offenses.

And prosecutors aren't going to really -- they're going to get programs.

It's going to get pled down to violations, things like that.

There's not going to be any really strict penalties.

So what they're working to do at the federal level and at the state level is to take these offenses as aggregate offenses.

So, for example, I believe, in Florida, their felony theft threshold is $700.

And they're changing it to be on an aggregate basis.

So, if you steal 100 here, 300 here, within a 12-month period, if it reaches that number, then you're going to get charged with a felony.

And that's what they hope to -- will stop these repeat offenders.

GEOFF BENNETT: Gabrielle Fonrouge of CNBC, thanks for helping us make sense of all this.

We appreciate it.

GABRIELLE FONROUGE: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's been a hectic week in Washington, as the country barrels toward a government shutdown and hearings begin in House Republicans' impeachment inquiry of President Biden.

We turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

Welcome.

Good to see you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Hi, Amna.

DAVID BROOKS: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's start with the shutdown, because we are, as Lisa reported earlier, hurtling towards another government shutdown.

And, Jonathan, they have become more commonplace in recent history.

We are here not because two parties don't agree, but because Republicans can't agree amongst themselves.

Could this have been avoided?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: No.

And it's not Republicans arguing amongst themselves.

It's House Republicans arguing amongst themselves.

It was fascinating to see that clip that Lisa played of the speaker yelling, saying, do you want me to surrender to the Senate?

As an American, yes, please, surrender to the Senate.

Why?

Because, over in the Senate, there's a bipartisan effort at a continuing resolution with Republicans and Democrats coming together.

They're supposed to vote tomorrow.

And, hopefully, it will vote out and put pressure on the speaker to take yes for an answer and keep the government open.

But the speaker has been in thrall to the MAGA minority within his majority that has been able to scuttle rule votes, scuttle continuing resolution votes, and not just by one or two votes.

The last vote they just did, 21 Republicans voted it down.

So, I -- yes, we're going to a shutdown.

It was inevitable.

The key question is, for how long will this shutdown last?

AMNA NAWAZ: David, what is Speaker McCarthy's strategy here?

To Jonathan's point, it seems to be to placate that minority of far right Republicans so far.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I really don't -- I have trouble seeing how this ends, because, in theory, it would end when he did a deal with Democrats and they got Republicans and Democrats together.

But that seems to be an impossibility.

So this really could go on a long time.

And, to me, it's the -- I wouldn't say it's inevitable, but to find the fork in the road that led us to this spot, I'd go back to the 1990s and back to Newt Gingrich, where you really had the beginning of departure -- of make-believe departure from reality.

And compared to today's crew, Newt Gingrich looks like Plato and Socrates, because they actually had a plan.

They wanted to cut government spending, and they had a plan to cut.

And John Kasich, and -- who was then in the House, wanted to cut government spending.

Here was the things he wanted to cut.

These guys today, they have no plan.

They're not going to touch taxes.

They're not going to touch entitlements.

They're -- it's just all make-believe.

And it's a lesson that, once you start pretending to other people, you end up lying to yourself.

And so I think they firmly believe they're doing something constructive here, and I have sympathy with the idea that the deficits are too big.

They're just not serious, and they have taken flight from reality, and it's become make-believe.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa did a wonderful job of touching on a few of the potential impacts here, because we talk about shutdowns like it's a political problem, but this -- it hits home in people's communities and in their lives.

And we know we have seen White House economists and private banks come out with the kind of estimates that say, oh, we could see reduced growth and so on.

But, Jonathan, how are you looking at the potential impact of this?

What does this mean?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I think when people think of shutdowns, they think of national parks being closed.

On my way here, I saw the bicycle fencing going up around the Lincoln Memorial, because that will be closed if the government shuts down.

But if you look at the -- there's a private Facebook group called FedFam.

And it was started, full disclosure, by a friend of mine during the 2019 government shutdown, which is the longest government shutdown in history.

And it was federal workers pooling their resources together in terms of information about where to get food, where to get assistance, some people offering help, most people looking for help.

That Facebook group now has more than 30,000 members.

And over the weeks leading up to what is possibly - - what is going to happen tomorrow, they have been gaining 200, 300 new members a day.

They're -- folks like to rip Washington, talk about the bureaucrats, these faceless bureaucrats are doing this or doing that.

These are real people who are among the American people who live paycheck to paycheck.

And a lot of those federal workers, yes, some will get back pay once they're able -- once the government reopens.

But a lot of them are contractors who will not be repaid.

And I'm thinking about cafeteria workers.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, the economists seem to agree that the economy is strong enough right now that a short-term shutdown would not do much lasting damage.

The longer, of course, it goes on, the more potential damage it could inflict.

But when you look at this fact that this economic context today is very different from the years of shutdowns past, right, there's a number of different headwinds at hand.

You have got autoworkers still on strike.

You have got the restarting of federal student low payments next month as well.

Are Republicans you talk to, are they worried that this could actually critically hurt the economy the longer it goes down?

DAVID BROOKS: Some of them are.

I mean, the Republicans are genuinely divided on this, and it's a mystery to me why they can't find a strategy, the way forward.

Gas prices are also shooting up.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

DAVID BROOKS: And there was a study that found that it would cut GDP 0.2 percent per week.

So that doesn't sound like a lot, but you add up a bunch of weeks, and that really does begin to sound like a lot.

And then there's the psychological effect on how businesses feel comfortable, how much consumer confidence there is.

And we're at that moment.

People have been predicting a recession for like a year-and-a-half, and we have been fortunate to avoid it.

But we're now at the precarious moment where it seemed before all this that we could slip into it, so that could happen.

And then the other blow, aside from, yes, we should focus on the WIC people you and Lisa talked about, people who are really vulnerable and just need support.

But then there's the overarching matter of public trust.

The Republican Party used to be the party, you weren't thrilled by them, but they were the business party.

They knew how to run things.

And that seems like eons or light years ago.

And so one of the things that's bound to sow distrust in institutions, distrust in government is stopping your work in the middle of nothing.

Like, that's what's going to happen.

And so the blow to public cynicism, the increase in public cynicism, the blow to public distrust, those are psychological things that will just cause more people to be even more contemptuous of government.

AMNA NAWAZ: Speaking of the Republican Party, there are three events this week I want to get both of your takes on that kind of give us insight into where the party is right now in the larger moment in political history.

We had, of course, the top seven Republican candidates for president participating in the second debate in California.

The stage did not include the leading candidate, Donald Trump, who held a rally in Michigan instead addressing autoworkers.

And then, on Thursday, House Republicans held their first public hearing for the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, where no new evidence was presented linking him to any impeachable offense.

Jonathan, what do all of these pull together kind of tells us about where the party is and its priorities?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: There's a GIF that I love to use for moments like these, and it is a dumpster on fire.

That is -- literally, that is what the Republican Party is.

You look at what we're talking about in terms of the shutdown, no leadership from the Republican speaker of the House to prevent a government shutdown.

On the other side, you have the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee leading a sham impeachment inquiry where their own witnesses came in and said, there's no evidence here yet.

And then, on that debate stage, a debate that I tuned into and turned away from because I couldn't understand what anyone was saying because everyone's talking over each other.

And what I could hear was offensive on so many levels.

And then, on top of that, a leading member - - the leading candidate by 43 points in the latest NBC News poll above Ron DeSantis, has four indictments and 91 counts in four different jurisdictions.

The Republican Party is either aimless when it comes to governing, or it's going down the road to autocracy when it comes to the presidential level.

And, quite honestly, as an American, that breaks my heart, because this country has been run on a two-party system, but it requires two strong parties.

And, right now, there's only one.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, how do you look at it?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I agree with a lot of what Jonathan said, except for we only have one strong party, because this is working for them.

All the stuff you mentioned, that's totally working for them.

To me, one of the symptomatic moments of this week was a story in my paper today.

The Club for Growth is a very conservative, sort of libertarian, free market, Republican, conservative outfit that has been spending millions of dollars to run ads against Donald Trump.

And a document, their own internal document was leaked.

And it turns out they found that those ads are doing nothing, that Donald Trump, some of the ads, if they mention January 6, it helps Donald Trump.

And so I think the upshot of that is that this is Donald Trump's party, Donald Trump's party more than ever before.

And it's also true that he is politically stronger than he's ever been before, in a political sense.

So he -- The Washington Post poll was an outlier, but he was leading Joe Biden by a chunk.

And so we have to think seriously about why is what they're doing working?

Because by what I know, and by my own aesthetic and moral sensibility, it should not be working.

And the Republican donor class is now in a panic to try to lure Governor Glenn Youngkin from Virginia into the race, which is just fantasyland.

Like, what does Glenn Youngkin bring that Nikki Haley doesn't bring?

It's not finding some magic figure who can take down Donald Trump.

It's Donald Trump's party.

And it's working.

And so that -- well, that's a scary thing, frankly.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Mm-hmm.

AMNA NAWAZ: Look, before we go, in the minute-or-half or so, we have left, I did want to ask each of you if you wanted to say something brief on the passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein, an absolute giant, an icon in politics and the Senate.

David?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I learned from the obituaries today how -- what a rough childhood she had.

She had a mom who had some mental health issues, flew into sulfuric rages, and what a hard childhood she had.

And then, even up to age 45, her political career looked to be over.

But that childhood had prepared her with a resilience to be tough at the horrible moment in San Francisco when the mayor was and the councilmember were killed.

And it enabled her to be tough in the Senate.

The one thing we all knew about Dianne Feinstein is, she was a very tough person.

I saw a Willie Brown quote from California.

He said, she shouldn't be a politician.

She doesn't play any games.

She's just direct.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: And that is -- that was true of Dianne Feinstein.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Senator Feinstein really came into my consciousness in '92, when she was elected in the -- quote -- "year of the woman," part of that vanguard of women in the Senate.

And then she was at pivotal moments in our history, the Clarence Thomas hearings, the investigation into torture.

Yes, she was tough as nails.

She was an excellent senator.

She was also someone who was sort of a moral rock and a conscience.

She was -- and she was a centrist, and not willing to be swayed one way or another, but was willing to talk and work and compromise, because she took governing seriously.

We lost a giant in American government.

AMNA NAWAZ: So many have followed in her footsteps as well.

Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, great to see you.

Thank you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Amna.

DAVID BROOKS: Good to see you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: You too.

GEOFF BENNETT: For many people, Cheech Marin a household name, the comedian and actor best known as part of the countercultural duo Cheech and Chong.

But also an avid collector of Chicano art and opened the first major museum entirely devoted to that two summers ago.

Jeffrey Brown visited the Cheech Art Museum for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: On a recent hot September evening in Riverside, California, a majority Latino city an hour east of Los Angeles, many families and individuals headed indoors.

And it was art, lots of it, that brought them.

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture, known to one and all as simply The Cheech, is part of the Riverside Art Museum.

Thanks to a partnership between the city, the museum and comedian and actor Cheech Marin, it's home to hundreds of works of art by dozens of Chicano artists.

And it began with Cheech's personal collection.

What do you see when you look around right now?

CHEECH MARIN, Art Collector: You know, I see children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, because I have been collecting for a long time.

There was no big collectors out there for Chicano art.

There was nobody collecting on the scale that I was, because it was an unknown quantity.

JEFFREY BROWN: What was it?

I mean, what did you see?

CHEECH MARIN: I saw a reflection of culture, Mexican culture, in an American setting, and that was Chicano.

It's the coolest art out there.

I have been smoking since I was born, man.

I could smoke anything.

JEFFREY BROWN: Marin gained fame in the 1970s and '80s as one-half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong.

He was a regular on TV and in films like "Born in East L.A.," which Cheech also wrote and directed.

He himself was born in South Central Los Angeles to Mexican-American parents.

And from an early age, he took an interest in art.

CHEECH MARIN: Every Saturday, I would go to the library, look at all the art books, and, OK, that's Picasso.

Is that how you say that?

Picasso, OK. JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

CHEECH MARIN: And that's Michelangelo.

And -- so by the time I -- in a little while, I knew a lot about art.

JEFFREY BROWN: But you weren't seeing art - - you weren't seeing Chicano art in those books.

(LAUGHTER) CHEECH MARIN: No.

You were barely seeing Chicanos, much less their art.

I knew kind of what the culture was.

And it was always defined from the outside, not from the inside of the culture.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, he brought the art inside, over decades, amassing a collection of more than 700 pieces from a variety of artists, including now well-known L.A.-born painters Frank Romero and Patssi Valdez, Texas-based Ricardo Ruiz, and younger mixed-media artists like Shizu Saldamando.

He curated an exhibition called Chicano Vision: American Painters on the Verge that traveled to major art museums in 15 cities between 2001 and 2007.

It would prove groundbreaking.

CHEECH MARIN: I knew it was an important moment, because I could see the reaction to not only within the community, but outside of the community, to, oh, we have never seen this art in that kind of -- we never really noticed this as art before.

And that all changed when they started opening the crates.

JEFFREY BROWN: Was there a sense from you and maybe from the artists of, why did this take so long?

CHEECH MARIN: Well, sure.

(LAUGHTER) CHEECH MARIN: Yes, sure, of course, because some artists had gone through their whole career and never got recognized.

And they were making work that would be recognized later, but it was frustrating for them not to be -- to be turned away not only from museums, but from galleries too.

JEFFREY BROWN: Seventy-five-year-old Judithe Hernandez knows that feeling all too well.

She grew up in L.A. and was a leading figure in the Chicano art movement of the 1960s and '70s.

JUDITHE HERNANDEZ, Artist: We didn't exist for the mainstream art world.

I mean, what we do -- what we did as art wasn't considered art at all.

So we made our own galleries.

We had our own exhibitions.

JEFFREY BROWN: It took decades, but her work was eventually acquired by institutions like the L.A. County Museum of Art and the Smithsonian.

Hernandez says progress, especially for Chicano women, has been slow.

JUDITHE HERNANDEZ: For many women that I talk to these days, it hasn't changed a lot.

It is still very male-dominated.

Women's work still has a very hard time getting into museums, as we all know.

JEFFREY BROWN: Early next year, she's finally having her first major retrospective.

And it's happening at The Cheech.

In fact, hers will be the first of its kind at the new museum.

JUDITHE HERNANDEZ: Having an exhibition of this size is remarkable for me.

I haven't had many solo shows.

I don't know what I will feel like the day that it opens.

I have never seen that much of my own work in one place.

(LAUGHTER) JUDITHE HERNANDEZ: It is very humbling.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's what Maria Esther Fernandez, the Cheech's artistic director, calls filling the education and exhibition gap.

MARIA ESTHER FERNANDEZ, Artistic Director, The Cheech Center: A lot of artists who are major artists in the Chicano movement that have not had solo shows, mid-career shows, much less a major retrospective now in the later years of their lives, one goal is to feature those exhibitions and have a space where we can do them regularly, not every five years.

JEFFREY BROWN: And it's not just major artists that they're focused on.

Upon entering The Cheech, the first pieces of art that visitors see are part of a community gallery featuring local and younger artists.

MARIA ESTHER FERNANDEZ: At the ethos of what Chicanx art is, is, coming out of the movement, was engaging community.

And so it's important for us, if we're going to be an institution, that we not replicate some of the museum models that have historically disenfranchised our community, that we engage them, that we bring them in as part of the curatorial aims and goals.

JEFFREY BROWN: Fernandez stresses that Chicano art has evolved over the years.

That's on display in the museum's upstairs gallery in a traveling exhibition titled Xican-a.o.x.

Body, with contemporary artists exploring the brown body in a wide variety of forms and styles.

MARIA ESTHER FERNANDEZ: Art tells us our history, especially for those of us who maybe aren't written into the history books.

And so I think it's important for folks to also understand that this art plays that role.

JEFFREY BROWN: There are still many gaps to fill.

By one count, fewer than 3 percent of artists in major U.S. museum collections are Latino.

So, this museum, did it feel necessary to you in some way?

CHEECH MARIN: I think it felt inevitable, Not necessary.

JEFFREY BROWN: How did you feel when it opened?

How did you feel personally when you stood here for the first time?

CHEECH MARIN: You know, I felt very proud.

And -- and -- and -- what's the word?

It's like watching your kids go off to college.

(LAUGHTER) CHEECH MARIN: They may come back.

They may not.

If we could make it past 20 years, then we're kind of in the club.

That's what they told me.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: In the big club in the art world.

CHEECH MARIN: In the big club, yes, exactly.

So, OK, I hope I live that long, but it's spawning a lot of relatives all around the country now.

So, now people know, oh, I know what that Chicano art is, kind of -- I have seen a couple of things.

I would like to see more.

JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at The Cheech in Riverside, California.

GEOFF BENNETT: That is phenomenal.

I want to visit The Cheech the next time I'm in California.

AMNA NAWAZ: Absolutely.

Count me in.

GEOFF BENNETT: And don't forget to watch "Washington Week" tonight on PBS.

Moderator Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel discuss the now-all-but-inevitable government shutdown.

AMNA NAWAZ: And on "PBS News Weekend" tomorrow: After record-breaking heat this summer, we look at why certain parts of cities like Austin, Texas, are hotter than others.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks for joining us.