AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The Air National Guardsman charged with divulging highly classified documents again appears in court, as prosecutors allege a pattern of troubling behavior.

AMNA NAWAZ: Disney punches back against Ron DeSantis.

How the Florida governor's war against what he calls wokism has turned into a drawn-out legal battle.

GEOFF BENNETT: And an Army base is renamed for two Black veterans, part of the Pentagons broader plan to stop honoring the Confederacy.

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD (RET.

), U.S. Navy: The names that are on the base signs should reflect the values of our country and the values of the American people.

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

There are new questions tonight about how a National Guardsman entered the military and kept his security clearance before leaking hundreds of classified documents online.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jack Teixeira appeared in a Massachusetts court, and prosecutors accused him of a history of violence and threats long before he allegedly committed one of the most significant intelligence leaks in years.

Nick Schifrin is following the story, joins us here now.

Nick, good to see.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's start with the latest today.

What happened in court?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Prosecutors are trying to make sure that Teixeira remains in federal custody.

And to make their case, they painted him as a much more dangerous figure both to the public and to national security than we knew previously.

Take a look at this.

They allege that, in 2018, he was suspended from high school for making remarks about guns, Molotov cocktails and racial threats, an incident that caused Massachusetts to deny him a firearms identification card.

And then they talk about regular violent comments he made online, killing an expletive ton of people to cull the weak-minded, turning a minivan into a -- quote -- "assassination van," and then finally using a rifle in a crowded environment.

They alleged that he used a government computer to research previous shootings and standoffs with federal agents and had a -- quote -- "virtual arsenal" inside his bedroom.

They also describe that he had multiple computers that he threw into a dumpster to destroy to try and cover his tracks.

And that's a picture of all those computers.

And on national security, prosecutors wrote that Teixeira may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation-states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape.

Now, it is important to note that there is no evidence that Teixeira leaked these documents to aid one of America's adversaries.

But, clearly, these are extraordinary statements about a 21-year-old airman who only had access to these documents he leaked because he was an I.T.

specialist on a highly secure network.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, there are so many concerning details about his background.

The biggest question remains, how did he get, how did he maintain a security clearance?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, first, how did he get it?

So, everyone who has the highest clearance, like Teixeira had, goes through a similar background check.

And DOD does that by interviewing the person's contacts.

And they're supposed to know about state decisions like the one that Massachusetts made denying him that firearms card.

Here's how Press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder put it today at the Pentagon.

BRIG.

GEN. PATRICK RYDER, Pentagon Press Secretary: If we're going to award us a security clearance, it's going to be pretty stringent requirements to get that security clearance.

First of all, there is going to be a background check.

You're going to take training and you're going to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

So, at the end of the day, it is not something that you just get.

It's something that you have to essentially earn and then maintain that.

However, if an individual decides to break the law willfully, that's a different story.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, then there's the question of how he maintained his clearance.

The military has known -- has what's known as continuous vetting, which is supposed to track personnel's financial, criminal, and public records and flag anything that they seem is -- as a risk at all.

And the government computer where he was doing his searchers were also supposed to mark those flags.

And so those are questions that will go into the investigation.

And, tonight, the Air Force confirms that they suspended his unit's commander, as well as another commander at the base where he worked.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, these are all alleged crimes right now.

So what do his defense attorneys say about this?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, Teixeira's public defenders are withering in their own criticism of the story that I just laid out.

They say that they have -- quote -- "hyperbolic judgments" about Teixeira.

And they call the part about foreign adversaries - - quote -- "little more than speculation."

And they want him released to his father.

And his father was in court today, and said that he could supervise his son.

In fact, his father said he removed his own guns from his own house, installed some cameras.

He could do that.

The prosecutors -- or the defense attorneys, rather, said that he could be monitored, prevented from going online.

And they pointed out that he is still an active-duty airman, which means he is still under the control of the Air Force, and the Air Force has an obligation to protect him.

And so there is a scenario in which he'd go back into the Air Force -- or, rather, remain in the Air Force, of course, not in his same job, though.

His clearances have been revoked.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot more details we still need to learn.

Nick Schifrin following it all for us.

Thank you, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the first quarter of the year, as higher interest rates took a toll.

Overall growth ran at an annual rate of 1.1 percent from January through March, based on Commerce Department data.

That's down from 2.6 percent in the final quarter of last year, and 3.2 percent in the third quarter.

Former Vice President Mike Pence spent today testifying before a federal grand jury in the January 6 investigation.

It's widely reported that his appearance came after a federal appeals court upheld a grand jury subpoena last night.

The court rejected an effort by former President Donald Trump to block the testimony.

The woman who's suing former President Donald Trump for rape faced cross-examination today in New York City.

Columnist E. Jean Carroll alleges it happened in 1996.

In federal court, Mr. Trump's lawyer suggested that Carroll made the accusation decades later to sell a book.

The writer said she was galvanized by the MeToo movement.

The president of South Korea went before the U.S. Congress today, urging an even tougher stance against North Korea.

Yoon Suk-yeol was greeted with a bipartisan standing ovation as he arrived to address the House and Senate.

YOON SUK-YEOL, South Korean President: My government will respond firmly to provocations, while, at the same time, we will keep the door open for dialogue and North Korea's denuclearization.

I once again urge North Korea to cease its provocations and take the right path.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yoon called for greater security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.

In Sudan, the military and paramilitary rebels said they have agreed to an extended cease-fire.

But intense fighting escalated in the Western Darfur region.

Cell phone video from the city of Geneva showed a sky blackened with smoke.

Residents told of fighters rampaging through neighborhoods and looting stores and homes.

The U.S. has announced new sanctions on Russia and Iran for jailing Americans without cause.

Today's action is largely symbolic, because Russia's federal security service and Iran's Revolutionary Guard are already under heavy sanctions.

Meantime, in Phoenix, pro basketball star Brittney Griner held her first news conference since being held 10 months in Russia.

BRITTNEY GRINER, WNBA Player: You're going to be faced with adversities throughout your life.

This was a pretty big one.

But I just kind of relied on my hard work getting through it.

I know this sounds so small, but dying in practice and just hard workouts, you find a way to just grind it out.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Russians refused today to let U.S. Embassy staffers visit Evan Gershkovich.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested last month and accused of espionage.

The U.S. has rejected the charge.

Reports of sexual assault in the U.S. military are up again, but at a much slower rate.

The Pentagon says they were up 1 percent and 2022, far less than the 13 percent gain of the previous year.

It was largely because reported assaults in the U.S. Army saw a big decline, by 9 percent.

The other three services reported increases.

The white woman at the center of the Emmett Till lynching case has died in Louisiana.

The 14-year-old Till was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Mississippi back in 1955.

Carolyn Bryant Donham had accused the teenager of whistling at her.

She never acknowledged any role in the lynching, but her husband at the time later confessed to the crime.

The Biden administration now plans to open asylum processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala.

The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, made the announcement today.

He said it's aimed at slowing a surge of migrants at the U.S. Southern border when COVID restrictions end next month.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: We do expect that encounters that are Southern border will increase as smugglers are seeking to take advantage of this change and already are hard at work spreading disinformation that the border will be open after that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Officials say more processing centers will be announced in other countries in the coming weeks.

The smoking rate among American adults has hit a new low.

CDC findings show that, in 2022, about 11 percent of the U.S. adult population identified as smokers.

The rate had been 42 percent in the mid-1960s, but has fallen gradually for decades.

The study also finds electronic cigarette use has risen to about 6 percent of adults.

On Wall Street, stocks had their best day since January, as big tech firms posted strong profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 524 points, 1.5 percent, to close at 33,826.

The Nasdaq rose nearly 2.4 percent.

The S&P 500 was up 2 percent.

And daytime television's one-time ringmaster of the outrageous, Jerry Springer, has died.

He was a former news anchor and mayor of Cincinnati before starting a talk show in 1991.

It was a carnival of brawling, cursing guests, and it ran for 27 years.

Jerry Springer was 79 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": what the latest GDP numbers say about the strength of the U.S. economy; how changes to Twitter's blue check marks could pose a risk to public safety; a Boston restaurant encourages diners to think more deeply about immigrant culture and food; and author Judy Blume discusses the film adaptation of her classic novel.

The battle between the Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has eclipsed politics and is now playing out in the courts.

Yesterday, Disney filed suit in federal court, arguing it's the victim of a -- quote -- "targeted campaign of government retaliation."

Disney accuses the governor and his allies overseeing the company's special taxing district of violating the company's constitutional rights.

Disney says it's a victim of targeted retaliation as punishment for speaking out against DeSantis' policies.

The governor says it's about accountability.

Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential candidate, responded to the suit today while on a trip in Israel.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL): They're upset because they're actually having to live by the same rules as everybody else.

They don't want to have to pay the same taxes as everybody else.

And they want to be able to control things without proper oversight, whereas every other Floridian has to have this type of oversight, all Florida businesses.

So it's a little bit much to be complaining about that.

I don't think the suit has merit.

I think it's political.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's break down this case with Arian Campo-Flores, who's been covering it for The Wall Street Journal.

Thank you for being with us.

And Disney is accusing DeSantis of orchestrating a campaign of government retaliation, of violating its protected free speech.

There are, as I understand it, a number of First Amendment lawyers who say this case has real merit.

Why is that?

ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES, The Wall Street Journal: Well, because the argument that Disney is making is that, because it exercised its free speech rights and came out against this legislation that was passed last year, the parental rights and education law, which critics have called the don't say gay law.

That, because Disney chimed in on that, the governor and the legislature then orchestrated this campaign of retaliation against the company by, for instance, seeking to end these contracts that it had signed earlier this year, passing legislation to strip it of control of this special tax district that it had long controlled.

And so it was essentially, in their view, using the machinery of the state to punish them for expressing an opinion about a piece of legislation.

GEOFF BENNETT: You know, it would normally be an act of political malpractice for a governor to fight with the marquee corporation in his or her state the way that Ron DeSantis has done with Disney.

But when this feud started around this time last year, last spring, he was initially rewarded for it.

He raised a ton of money for his reelection campaign, he won reelection in a dominant victory, and there were Disney lobbyists who ultimately co-chaired his inauguration.

What changed between then and now?

Did Disney just get tired of being a corporate punching bag?

ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES: I think what happened is that it has just dragged on so long, and it has also escalated.

So I think Disney's initial approach to this was to stay quiet, lie low, try to work behind the scenes and get some sort of agreement resolved with the state.

But what ended up happening is that that apparently got nowhere.

And then things have escalated, because, since there was no resolution to it, Disney went ahead and tried to secure these development rights, basically, earlier this year under a previous board of this district.

And then, once the new board that was appointed by Governor DeSantis discovered what had happened, I mean, that really angered the governor, and escalated things further, to the point now where you have this what is likely to be very drawn-out litigation over who can control the development rights in this district.

GEOFF BENNETT: This lawsuit has been assigned to a federal judge who has frequently ruled against DeSantis' conservative agenda.

Tell us about this judge and what impact that might have on the case.

ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES: Yes, well, this is Judge Mark Walker, who has been on numerous cases that have involved policies that the DeSantis administration has supported.

He has ruled against the governor on many occasions.

The governor has often singled him out for criticism.

And, in some cases, those decisions by the lower court judge, by Judge Walker, have then been reversed or gone back in the governor's favor once they hit the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

So I think this -- if you're attorneys for Disney, you're probably feeling good that you got this case assigned to Judge Walker.

On the other hand, DeSantis has often emerged with at least a partial victory later on once it goes to the appellate level.

GEOFF BENNETT: There is reporting out today that Governor DeSantis is planning to jump into the presidential fray as early as mid-May, potentially first with an exploratory committee.

He was asked about that today.

Here's how he responded.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS: There's not been anything set.

I have been focused on this mission that we have been doing.

We're going to end up making it pretty much around the world by the time we're done.

And if there's any announcements, those will come at the appropriate time.

But it's not -- if anyone's telling you that somehow they know this or they know that, that's just inaccurate, because there's not been any decisions made.

GEOFF BENNETT: Based on your reporting, is there any reason to think that he's not running or he doesn't plan to run?

ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES: I mean, based on my colleagues' reporting, I think that the -- what they're hearing is that he very much does plan to run, but that has -- those plans have not changed.

I think it's more a question of timing.

And so we will see.

Clearly, this case has proven to be kind of a distraction to all that.

GEOFF BENNETT: What we will you watching for as this case proceeds/ ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES: Well, I think there's a possibility of even more litigation, because there is -- apart from what -- the lawsuit that was filed over the board's actions, there is also a piece of legislation that's moving through the Florida legislature that would also seek to nullify these agreements that Disney struck.

And if, in fact, that does pass and the governor signs it into law, then that creates yet another reason or another trigger for which Disney might sue.

So you might see even more litigation on this.

GEOFF BENNETT: Arian Campo-Flores with The Wall Street Journal, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us.

ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES: My pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: The newest data suggests the U.S. economy is slowing down.

Consumers are still spending, and companies are still hiring and investing, but not at the same pace as last year.

At the same time, the economy continues to defy predictions of an imminent recession.

Economics correspondent Paul Solman has our report on what the numbers tell us, and how that squares with how Americans feel about it all.

PAUL SOLMAN: The latest GDP estimate of economic growth out this morning, lower than many had expected.

Economist Justin Wolfers: JUSTIN WOLFERS, University of Michigan: GDP grew at a rate of 1.1 percent.

It's a measure either of how much we all produced, how much more this quarter than last, or how much we all spent, or how much we all earned.

It's all three things.

PAUL SOLMAN: One-point-one percent is lower than it has been.

Do your colleagues all agree that this is bad news or good news?

JUSTIN WOLFERS: Well, on the one hand it is a little lower than it has been recently and a little lower than many expected.

On the other, all those people who are talking about recessions are starting to feel pretty disappointed, because this economy keeps motoring along.

PAUL SOLMAN: Ah, the answer President Harry Truman supposedly responded to way back in 1949 with: "Can't somebody bring me a one-handed economist?"

So you're looking on the bright side?

JUSTIN WOLFERS: I think there's a lot to like here.

This has been an economy dominated by people talking about recession and doom-and-glooming their way forward.

But every time you look at the actual numbers, people are spending, people are producing, the economy keeps growing.

As much as people say they're worried about the economy, if you look at what they do, people are out there spending money as if they believe things are OK. GDP is back where the CBO thought it would be four years ago.

Unemployment is nearly at a 50-year low.

Wages are growing.

Inflation is higher than it has been in quite some time, but it's on the way back down and starting to look like it's at more manageable levels.

PAUL SOLMAN: The biggest problem has been inflation, of course, but Wolfers is borne out by prices in sectors we have been showing you, inflation, the souffle-like rise in egg prices, now dropping, lumber up fourfold during COVID, back down near its level before the pandemic, containers shipping up five times just two years ago, with prices back down to where they were in 2019.

"The Economist" magazine had the most positive take of oil in a recent cover story, pointing out that America's GDP represents about 25 percent of the world total, almost the same share as it had in 1990, and that $100 invested in the S&P 500, a stock index of America's biggest companies, in 1990 would have grown to about $2,300 today, invested in an index of the biggest rich world stocks, which excluded American equities, about $500.

But if the economy is so good, how come so many Americans don't believe it or feel it?

RAKEEN MABUD, The Groundwork Collaborative: When people are saying that they are concerned about the health of our economy, I believe them.

PAUL SOLMAN: Economist Rakeen Mabud has seen the latest consumer confidence numbers, which hit a nine-month low this week.

And the Pew poll found that 58 percent of Americans think the economy is worse than it was 50 years ago.

RAKEEN MABUD: We are in a precarious situation.

We have nine consecutive rate hikes thus far this -- over the course of the last many months and probably another to come.

Those rate hikes, as Chair Powell himself has admitted, have not yet fully hit the system.

And so there's a real chance that things will go south as we continue to see the effects of these rate hikes play out.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, for many, given inflation, things have already gone south.

Moreover, says Mabud: RAKEEN MABUD: We have a cost of living crisis in this country that long predates the current bout of inflation.

The cost of essentials like childcare and health care have been putting burdens on family budgets for decades.

PAUL SOLMAN: But wages at the bottom has been rising.

RAKEEN MABUD: Wages at the bottom have been doing well.

But wages as a whole have not been keeping pace with inflation.

And I think, at the end of the day, people are feeling that, right?

People are feeling the cost of goods going up, the cost of essentials going up, and they're struggling.

PAUL SOLMAN: OK, so which economy does today's GDP number suggest?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, Former Congressional Budget Office Director: If you look our performance compared to our competitor developed countries, it's really good.

So... PAUL SOLMAN: The answer depends on context, says economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN: Yes, we have got problems, but we don't have the problems other people have.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, years ago, you said that the United States was the best horse in the glue factory.

What did you mean, and is it still true?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN: We think of the glue factory as the place where horses who don't have some other great function end up, and so we worry that somehow the U.S. has passed its prime, that, somehow, we're not about the economy that we once were and.

I just don't think that's literally true.

PAUL SOLMAN: But the metaphor is that the American economy is going to be ground up into glue.

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN: It is perhaps not the rosiest assessment of the United States as an economy or a nation.

But I'm an economist.

I'm not a rosy guy, right?

And I just want to remind people, at the end of that conversation, that, yes, those problems are there, but we're doing pretty well.

PAUL SOLMAN: For a horse in the global glue factory, that is.

For the "PBS NewsHour," Paul Solman.

AMNA NAWAZ: A blue check mark on Twitter used to be a way for users to verify the authenticity of an account.

But, recently, CEO Elon Musk said people must pay $8 a month for the platform's -- quote - - "Twitter Blue subscription service."

As a result, journalists, politicians, celebrities, city and government organizations who would not pay have been stripped of their verified status, causing chaos and confusion about what information can be trusted.

I'm joined now by Juliette Kayyem.

She's professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Julie, it's good to have you here.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, Former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary: Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, to get a blue check previously, there was a process.

You had to have your identity verified.

Like many journalists, I had one as well.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are the real-world implications of that verification process going away?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: So, verification was part of an overall process that Twitter had that made it the most reliable platform in -- especially in times of emergency or disaster, which is the world that I come from, disaster management.

And what it did is, it ensured that the way the algorithm worked is that, when something bad happened, journalists, government officials, emergency managers, their information, what they were seeing, what they were hearing, and, most importantly, what did they want community members to do, do you run, do you hide, do you evacuate, do you shelter in place - - those are important decisions to be made with just a few moments' notice.

All of those were now valid -- were validated through the blue check mark.

Now, just based on experience, but because we know the blue check mark is unreliable, Twitter feeds -- just think of a school shooting.

Twitter feeds are just unreliable.

They're not helpful.

They're not giving you information in real time.

So that has been a -- I use -- I said, Twitter used to be good at saving lives.

I know it's hard for people to believe, but it really became a way in which public safety agencies were pushing out information.

And, as importantly, it became a way in which communities and information was being heard by government officials.

That's a system with -- that's called API, but, basically, in, let's say, the earthquake in Turkey... AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: ... government officials would follow what was happening on Twitter.

There's a lot of people who seem to be under rubble here.

There's a lot of people who seem to be without water here.

And that would help drive resources.

That whole system is now unreliable and not accessible.

And so I know we talk a lot about what's bad about Twitter.

But, at one stage, it was really good.

It was really, really good.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

There's the emergency and disaster response part of it.

There's also the misinformation part of it.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are sort of the worst-case consequences you're seeing?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Well, we saw it -- we saw it on day one when the blue check mark could be bought.

Someone clever, not -- it didn't seem like he was nefarious -- bought the National Weather Service name, so that... AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: ... if you were looking for the National Weather Service, which is the sort of best assessor of what weather is telling us... AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: ... and then it's pushing out information based on where you are regionally or locally, someone bought the check mark, so that if you went to National Weather Service, you might be watching that.

Now we're seeing it in terms of New York -- like, for example, New York City services, emergency management entities.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: These are fake accounts, basically, that paid for a check mark, right?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Fake accounts that are -- and it's -- and in a disaster, time is really your most valued commodity.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: And Twitter was really good at sort of pushing out information in real time very quickly, very reliably.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: And there's -- and they liked it.

I mean, that's the interesting thing.

If you go back to the company -- and I have worked with the company over years.

They really thought that this was a role that was important to them as a company.

And then that's all been abandoned.

AMNA NAWAZ: What about Elon Musk's approach to journalists and to journalism, writ large?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: And for folks who haven't been tracking this, we should also say, in the interest of full disclosure, our PBS "NewsHour" account still does tweet out our reporting and information.

But Musk had stripped The New York Times of their verified status.

He tweeted that: "The real tragedy of The New York Times is their propaganda isn't even interesting."

That's to his 137 million followers.

He's also suspended accounts of journalists who follow him.

He added a state-affiliated media label to NPR's account.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: I mean, what message does that send?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: So, he's basically trolling journalists, because the journalists are critical of him or their -- just the reporting is critical of him.

And he seems to now view Twitter as sort of his own sort of hit list, I guess I would say, that he's using it as a way to make it impossible for legitimate journalists, for legitimate institutions to get out information, legitimate information in real time.

Will he stop doing that?

One hopes.

I always think that he's just going to -- he seems like someone who will get bored with this and then move on to the next thing.

But there's legitimate damage being done, one, because it misrepresents some journalists and what they're doing, and may elevate other journalists.

There's people who should not, for example, be called journalists.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: And, also, it undermines the legitimacy of organizations like PBS or NPR.

AMNA NAWAZ: I need to ask you in the minute or so we have left about a story we reported on earlier... JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... the revelations around Jack Teixeira, that Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking those intelligence documents.

In a previous role... JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... you oversaw the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Coincidence.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I just wonder how you are taking all of this in about how someone like that got a security clearance?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes.

It seems inconceivable, until I tell you that 1.3 million people have top secret clearance.

It's just -- it's too many people at this stage.

And as a public and private, that's -- it's national, federal, state.

It's -- lots of people have access to classified information.

And it seems where the gap was -- or there are two gaps here.

One was, he was doing all sorts of things when he was 16 and 17 years old, not good things at all.

I think that's racism, threatening people.

And, somehow, the Pentagon cleared him, sort of excused it as sort of youthful transgressions, and we're going to -- we're going to let him in.

But, once they do that, they then give him access to everything.

And I think that the question now is, it's inconceivable to me that he had access to everything that he was then able to release.

So there's the question of, how did he get it in the first place?

Why did he have access for this particular job?

And then the question that the Pentagon is going to have to answer, over months, he is putting this stuff online, and no one at the Pentagon captures it.

He's putting it on gaming platforms for months.

AMNA NAWAZ: Still a lot of questions.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: A lot of questions.

AMNA NAWAZ: Juliette Kayyem, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, thank you for being here.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: For the first time in history, U.S. Army bases will be named after women and Black officers, instead of only white men.

Today, Fort Lee, named for General Robert E. Lee, became Fort Gregg-Adams for two Black officers who made significant contributions to the Army.

It is one of nine renamed bases, part of a congressional and military effort to change Confederate names and honor American heroes.

Nick Schifrin is back with that story.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Until today, the U.S. Army's third largest training site was named for the slave-owning commander of the Confederate Army.

Nearly 160 years after Robert E. Lee's surrender, Fort Lee surrendered his namesake traitor to commemorate two trailblazers.

LT. GEN. ARTHUR GREGG (RET).

U.S. Army: I hope that this community will look with pride on the name Fort Gregg-Adams and that the name will instill pride in every soldier entering our mighty gates.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ninety-year-old Lieutenant General Arthur J. Gregg enlisted in the Army in 1946.

He wanted to be a lab technician, but faced racial barriers, so went into logistics.

He graduated from officer candidate school and retired after 36 years as the military's highest-ranking Black officer, his first assignment at the base that now bears his name with its whites-only officers club, which is also now named for him.

The base also commemorates the late Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams, who commanded the first and only unit of mostly Black women officers to serve overseas during World War II.

It's all part of an effort to rename nine bases and hundreds of other military assets whose names celebrate the Confederacy, among them, Fort Bragg renamed Fort Liberty, Fort Hood renamed for Richard Cavazos, the Army's first ever four-star general of Hispanic descent, and Fort A.P.

Hill renamed for Mary Edwards Walker, a Civil War surgeon who became a prisoner of war and the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor.

The naming commission was chaired by retired Navy Admiral Michelle Howard, the Navy's first female four-star and the first Black woman to command a U.S. Navy ship.

I spoke to her yesterday.

Welcome to the "NewsHour."

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD (RET.

), U.S. Navy: Thank you, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Why, overall, is this renaming important?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: After the George Floyd murders, many states started to rethink our vision and the memories of the Civil War.

At the federal level, Congress realized that naming an asset, a building or ship after someone honors them, commemorates them.

And the people who fought for the Confederacy were traitors.

They waged war against the United States.

So, those names should be removed or replaced with names of people who have remained faithful to the United States.

Our military bases are important symbols of might and right of the United States.

And the names that are on the base signs, the names that are on our ships should reflect the values of our country and the values of the American people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You acknowledge in your report that, as you and your commissioners did your work, you were criticized for -- quote -- "erasing history."

But you write this.

You write: "History is about who we were.

Commemoration is about who we strive to be."

What do you mean?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: When you name an asset for an individual, you're elevating them.

It's someone you want to look up to and remember for their heroic acts or for their example of leadership.

History is the retelling of the facts.

We're not looking at changing DOD school books.

But we are looking to have names now that, when a sailor serves on a ship, or a soldier serves on a base, or an airman serves on a base, they can look up and learn about that person, and be inspired to be a better military member.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You acknowledge that many of the bases named for Confederate leaders have far more to do with the culture under which they were named than they have with the historical acts of their namesakes.

How so?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: After the Civil War, there was not a naming of Confederates.

There were no symbols.

They weren't considered traitors by those who had stayed with the U.S. Army and by our government.

These installations that we looked at, they were named in World War II.

And the idea of the Army, Department of War at the time was that we should name bases in the South after Confederate generals and bases in the North after Union generals to help create patriotism.

What's obvious in that statement is, they are forgetting about all of the Americans who are either African American or other communities that the naming after Confederate generals is not inspiring.

It completely ignored their perspectives.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For years, the Army fought some of these efforts.

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: Yes.

NICK SCHIFRIN: We went back to 2017 and found a statement that removing the names of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from a base in New York would be -- quote -- "controversial and divisive."

The debate, I think, still goes on.

I don't want to be political, but I'm going to bring up one tweet here.

President Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, in part objecting to a provision that required changes to bases named after Confederate leaders.

And he said: "These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a great American heritage.

Our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be tampered with."

Do you think today the debate is ongoing?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: So you start with the veto?

I start with the fact that the veto was overturned, in a very strong bipartisan manner, that the elected officials of this country understood that this was something that needed to be looked at.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And needed to be reckoned with and fixed?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: We have had reckonings over the aftermath of slavery in the Civil War, but I'm not sure we have ever had reconciliation.

And, in some ways, the work Congress charted the commission to do starts us down the path of reconciliation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And yet, regardless of these changes, how large of a challenge is reverence of the Confederacy?

Indeed, how large of a challenge does racism continue to be in the U.S. military?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: You know, the military is made up of humans, and they are wonderful individuals, but I will be the first to say, we're not saints.

And so we carry our own beliefs and prejudices and biases with us.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But some have argued that these issues, whether of reverence for the Confederacy, whether of racism, are actually institutional.

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: The country's changed quite a bit.

Our laws have changed over the years.

Our policies have changed over the years.

It is remarkable we're having this conversation in the 75th anniversary of Truman's Armed Forces Integration Act, Truman's act that allowed women to now serve on active-duty in the military.

Our military reflects the change in the law.

And our military reflects the changes in the Constitution.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And those changes need to be ongoing?

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: I don't know if our founding fathers thought of the Constitution as a living, breathing document that would become more encompassing of all of her citizens and expand the rights to all Americans, but that is what is happening.

And so this democracy continues to evolve.

But I think, the better it evolves, it just continues to make our country greater.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Retired Admiral Michelle Howard, thank you so much.

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD: Thank you, Nick.

AMNA NAWAZ: A new restaurant in Boston traces the remarkable journey of immigrant food and celebrates the people who helped bring it to our tables.

Laura Barron-Lopez gives us a taste.

KWASI KWAA, Comfort Kitchen: Yes.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It is the rice and the spice that tell the story of chef Kwasi Kwaa's signature dish, jerk-roasted duck.

KWASI KWAA: The rice is a Caribbean dish, but a lot of the spices in the rice are very much transplants of Asia.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Prepared with passed-down cooking methods from around the globe, Kwaa calls it a history lesson a plate.

KWASI KWAA: Before we even create a dish, we're looking at the history first and foremost, before anything else.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We sat down with Kwaa at Comfort Kitchen, a new restaurant in Boston that he opened with fellow immigrant Biplaw Rai earlier this year.

KWASI KWAA: A lot of those ingredients have moved around through the world based on travel, immigration, whether voluntary or involuntary.

So we're talking about human trade.

We're talking about spice trade.

We're talking about goods and commodities trade.

And there's so much culture tied to that, that those are the stories that we always want to not only highlight, but celebrate.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Storytelling is at the core of Comfort Kitchen, where customers can learn about the history of global migration through food.

Why do you think customers should care about the history of where their food comes from?

BIPLAW RAI, Comfort Kitchen: We are all very much affected by colonization that happened hundreds of years ago.

Oftentimes, it's used again against us.

But if we are more familiar with our history, our background, and the story, there's more similar struggles that we all go through.

And I think that's important for us, is building empathy through food.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For Kwaa, who emigrated to the U.S. from Ghana in 1997, and Rai, who came from Nepal in 2002, it all starts with the menu.

KWASI KWAA: I want the food industry to respect Black and brown immigrant food.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Designed with the look and feel of a culinary magazine, customers can learn about okra's origins in Africa or that their yassa chicken is an example of single pot cooking that has sustained civilizations for centuries.

KWASI KWAA: If you're able to connect people, culture to the food, it makes it more meaningful.

So we're not only looking to tell the stories of those ingredients and those cook methods, but we're looking to tell the stories of the folks that are behind those ingredients.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Like many other immigrants, the pair found an access point to America in the food industry, where they worked together in various jobs for more than a decade, including running pop-up restaurants during the pandemic.

But, in January, together with a local nonprofit, they finished converting this historic building once used by streetcar riders into a dining space.

Why did you both get involved in the food industry?

(LAUGHTER) KWASI KWAA: Absolute necessity.

BIPLAW RAI: Yes, personally, for -- I went to school for political science for undergrad.

When I graduated, we had financial crisis in 2007-'8, so no jobs.

Went back to school, got my MBA.

Another financial crisis in 2009.

And, throughout these times, that has really helped me sustain life is restaurants and cafes and food service industry.

That was the only industry that was actually giving job.

KWASI KWAA: Even though it is a skill -- specific skill set industry, it's also -- for most immigrants, it's like you grow up cooking at home anyway.

So it's one of those that the transition is just very simple.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Their experiences working in the industry helped shape Comfort Kitchen, a fine dining establishment staffed by a team from nine different countries.

BIPLAW RAI: A lot of people have preconceived notions about when they walk into an immigrant restaurant, it's to be cheap.

It's fast casual.

It's always in a neighborhood that's not nice.

We are trying to do everything differently.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, when people look at the plate, what do you want them to see?

KWASI KWAA: I want them to see... BIPLAW RAI: World peace.

KWASI KWAA: World peace.

(LAUGHTER) KWASI KWAA: World peace.

That's good.

World peace, yes.

No, I want them to see we're not just telling the story of Comfort Kitchen as a restaurant.

We're telling the story of Billy (ph), who comes in at 6:00 a.m. We're telling the story of Ama (ph), who comes in also at 6:00 a.m. Before that plate hits your table, there's a lot of hands that not only touch it, but care for it, right?

And those hands are tied to several livelihoods.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But while the food industry has been a lifeline for Kwaa and Rai, they believe much about it still needs to change, including the treatment of immigrants.

BIPLAW RAI: Across America, restaurant industry is one of those industry which I often say it's the underbelly of United States.

If you want to change immigration, you got to look into restaurant industry.

And, for us, that's been our mission, is to change that dynamic, have immigrants in the front and center, talk about our food, talk about why immigrant food is also American food.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So far, it's a formula that's working.

BIPLAW RAI: Awesome.

Well, welcome back.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Tables are often incredibly hard to come by.

And customers are leaving happy, including this one.

I could eat this rice all the time.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Boston.

GEOFF BENNETT: "Are You There God?

It's Me, Margaret."

Just say the title and many will respond with a knowing smile, a memory of what was a formative book for young people starting in the 1970s.

Now the novel by Judy Blume, author of some 32 books that have sold more than 90 million copies, is about to premiere as a film.

In the first of two reports, Jeffrey Brown visited Blume and the filmmakers in Key West Florida, where Blume owns a bookstore, for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the new film "Are You There God?

It's Me, Margaret."

an 11-year-old girl worries whether her breasts will grow, when she will get her period, if she, the daughter of an interfaith marriage, should embrace religion, and, if so, which one, familiar concerns of adolescence perhaps.

ACTRESS: Do you think any of us who will click that when we're 19?

ACTRESSES: We must, we must, we must increase our chests!

JEFFREY BROWN: But subjects not often addressed in novels for young readers when Judy Blume took them on in the 1970 novel on which the film is based.

JUDY BLUME, Author, "Are You There God?

It's Me, Margaret": And I remember saying, I have written two books.

I had published two books.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

JUDY BLUME: But they were what I call from the outside.

They weren't from deep inside.

JEFFREY BROWN: This was the first one inside?

JUDY BLUME: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

JUDY BLUME: And I remember saying to myself, I want to go inside and be honest and truthful and what I remember of being that age.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Margaret was the first of some 16 books Blume wrote that captured the real lives of tweens and teens and spoke frankly of such facts of life as puberty, masturbation and sex.

A specific focus for her, girls on what she calls the cusp.

JUDY BLUME: The cusp is everything, right?

I mean, you're going from being a kid.

You're still maybe playing jacks or jumping rope or doing something.

Then, on the other hand, there were boys.

That was becoming more interesting.

And so you're half and half.

JEFFREY BROWN: The books had been devoured and loved by several generations of readers, including, in 1990, a then-11-year-old named Kelly Fremon.

KELLY FREMON CRAIG, Director: She was the first person who made me fall in love with reading.

Prior to that, I really had a hard time connecting with anything.

Everything felt sort of inaccessible to me.

And then I read Judy Blume.

And I was like, oh, this is -- this is -- this is what reading can be like.

JEFFREY BROWN: Thirty-three years later, after directing the critically acclaimed film "Edge of Seventeen" in 2016, Kelly Fremon Craig is now the director of the new "Margaret" film.

ACTOR: Oh, it was incredible.

ABBY RYDER FORTSON, Actress: What are those boxes for?

ACTOR: Don't worry about that.

I want to hear more about camp.

What else did you learn?

What else... (CROSSTALK) ACTRESS: You're moving.

ABBY RYDER FORTSON: What?

ACTOR: Really, mom?

JEFFREY BROWN: Like the book, it's set in a New Jersey suburb in the late 60s.

But, she believes, it's timeless.

KELLY FREMON CRAIG: It was really that she was writing about me.

I mean, that's really what it was.

I related.

Prior to that, I really hadn't, you know?

I felt like this is my life reflected back at me.

And I think, when you're going through a hard time, there's something really reassuring about that, knowing you're not alone.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was a feeling shared by fans outside an early screening of the film in Key West, Florida, where Judy Blume and her husband, George Cooper, have long lived.

This group of friends was visiting from outside Dayton, Ohio.

EMILY O'LEARY, Fan: It's incredibly authentic in a way that you don't find.

It's honest, and it's real, and it deals with real life themes.

AUDREY DEXTER, Fan: I just remember myself reading them.

And I want to pass that along to my child.

I want them to be able to read it as well.

So, I have all of them, like I said, and the bindings are coming apart.

CYNTHIA HUMMEL, Fan: I did a book report on this book in third grade, so... JEFFREY BROWN: Blume had long been reluctant to approve a film version of her novel.

JUDY BLUME: I just felt Hollywood was like cutesy kid.

JEFFREY BROWN: With Fremon Craig and her mentor, veteran producer James Brooks, convinced him.

And now author, cast and crew gathered for a Key West version of a red carpet premiere.

Rachel McAdams, herself a mother to two young children, plays Margaret's mother.

RACHEL MCADAMS, Actress: I think these stories are important to talk about something that's so normal, but we just don't talk about it.

It's just such a weird contradiction.

There's days when I was crying more than the character really should have in the scene.

JEFFREY BROWN: You were crying because what?

RACHEL MCADAMS: Thinking about my daughter going through these things or thinking about her growing up and hoping it's a wonderful, beautiful experience, and that I can be everything she needs.

And just there's a lot of emotion around.

ACTRESS: Arms up, dear.

JEFFREY BROWN: Fifteen-year-old Abby Ryder Fortson plays Margaret.

And she thinks the story remains very relevant for her generation.

RACHEL MCADAMS: How's that feel?

ABBY RYDER FORTSON: I cannot wait to take it off.

I feel, like especially in this time of social media, where everything's kind of posed to make people look the best, and things are edited, I think it's a good going-off point, especially for this film, where you get to see all the awkward, funny, weird moments that make a person a person.

RACHEL MCADAMS: I particularly think about the kids that went through puberty during the pandemic and how isolating that must have been, and just how freeing it can be tough to connect with someone who's had the same thing, and you can share your story of your first bra.

And it's always funny and horrible.

And it just brings us all together.

ABBY RYDER FORTSON: I think that one of the reasons why the movies is such an important film is that it really can open up conversations that, as a parent, you might not want to sit down and: Hey, we're going to talk about sex and puberty and boobs and all that today.

RACHEL MCADAMS: Right.

Finish your cereal.

ABBY RYDER FORTSON: Yes, finish your cereal.

RACHEL MCADAMS: And we will get started.

JEFFREY BROWN: Says mom.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, director Kelly Fremon Craig is reading the book to her 9-year-old son to prepare him for seeing the film when it opens.

KELLY FREMON CRAIG: He's a little young, but he was very curious.

So it's been very interesting.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes?

KELLY FREMON CRAIG: He -- I got through about two chapters.

And then he turned to me anyway, and he went: "You have made an entire movie about boobs?"

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: For Judy Blume, the real audience for this film is what she calls the nostalgia group.

JUDY BLUME: People now as old as my daughter, she was the first reader.

And she's 60.

So, it's the 60-, 50-, 40-, 30-, 20-somethings who remember it as being their childhoods.

And I know them because they come to the bookstore every day.

WOMAN: Hopefully meeting you.

JUDY BLUME: Well, here I am.

And it's a very emotional thing.

Well, sometimes, they will burst into tears.

And I know what it is.

I represent in some way their childhood.

JEFFREY BROWN: But Blume, whose books have faced bans going back to the 1980s and again now, also knows the film comes out at a contentious culture war moment, with Florida a major hot spot.

JUDY BLUME: It's hitting at the right time.

We need it.

We need it.

I don't know what's going to happen when it opens.

I don't know.

JEFFREY BROWN: In terms of how it hits in the political culture, social culture?

JUDY BLUME: Yes, exactly.

JEFFREY BROWN: We will look at that and much more in Judy Blume's life as an author in part two of our report on her and the new film "Are You There God?

It's Me, Margaret."

ABBY RYDER FORTSON: Just be normal and regular like everybody else, just please, please, please, please, please, please, please.

JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Key West, Florida.

AMNA NAWAZ: One of my favorite books of all time.

Meantime, that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a good evening.